HC Deb 18 January 1979 vol 960 cc848-9W
Mr. Tebbit

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list, for the latest month for which comparable information is available, the percentage unemployed in the public and private sectors on the same basis as those contained in the table published in the Written Answer,Official Report, 22nd February 1977, column 557.

Mr. Harold Walker:

Separate unemployment rates for the public and private sectors can be calculated only in an imprecise way by allocating the figures for each minimum list heading of the standard industrial classification to the sector appropriate to the majority in each heading. On this basis, the percentages in Great Britain for November 1978, the latest date for which the quarterly industrial analysis of the unemployed is available, were 3.1 in the public sector and 5.1 in the private sector.