§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the number of (a) adults and (b) young people unemployed in (i) Kirkby, (ii) Ormskirk, (iii) Merseyside, and (iv) the North-West for each month since May 1979.
§ Mr. Jim LesterAn age analysis of the registered unemployed is made in January, April, July and October. The following table gives the available information from April 1979 for those under 18 years of age, those aged 18–19 and those aged 20 and over in the areas 561W specified. The figures for Merseyside and the North-West for January 1980 will
Aged Under 18 years Aged 18–19 years Aged 20 years and over Kirkby employment office area April 1979 … … 395 603 4,040 July 1979* … … 935 591 3,931 October 1979† … … 673 640 4,165 January 1980 (provisional) … 537 682 4,457 Ormskirk employment office area April 1979 … … 34 67 631 July 1979* … … 194 86 621 October 1979† … 69 92 656 January 1980 (provisional) … … 46 83 691 Merseyside Special Development area April 1979 … … 6,197 10,203 65,994 July 1979* … … 16,732 10,688 64,239 October 1979† … 10,013 10,663 66,334 North West Region April 1979 … … 12,583 20,361 160,000 July 1979* … … 42,535 22,983 152,037 October 1979† … 20,777 22,252 157,941 * The July figures include considerable numbers of school leavers, particularly in the under 18 age group, which are not present in the figures for other months. †The figures from October 1979 are not quite comparable with those for previous dates because they are affected by the introduction of fortnightly attendance and payment of benefit. This raised the figure for all unemployed in the North-West region by about 2,600. Estimates are not available for areas below standard regional level but for the country as a whole the figures are about 1½ per cent. higher than they would have been under weekly attendance.