§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many (a) men, and (b) women were unemployed in Wolverhampton at the latest convenient date; what percentage of the work force this represents in each case; and if he will break the figures down into the various age groups.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 31 October 1980, c. 384–85]: The following table gives the numbers registered as unemployed in the Wolverhampton employment office area at 9 October, analysed by sex and by age. At the same date, the percentage rates of unemployment in the Wolverhampton travel-to-work area were 12.4 for males and 9.3 for females. Rates of unemployment are calculated only for the complete travel-to-work area, which comprises the Wolverhampton, Bilston and Wednesfield employment offices areas. The figures are provisional.
Aged Male Female Under 18 years 1,122 1,066 18 years 461 431 19 years 370 326 20–24 years 1,438 969 25–34 years 1,632 717 35–44 years 1,096 388 45–54 years 1,044 353 55–59 years 602 189 60–64 years 734 8 65 years and over 16 — Total, all ages 8,515 4,447
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many school leavers were unemployed in Wolverhampton at the latest convenient date; and how many vacancies there were at (a) the school careers office, and (b) generally in the same period.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 31 October 1980, c. 384–85]: At 9 October the provisional number of school leavers under 18 years of age registered 512W as unemployed in the Wolverhampton employment office area was 1,736. At 3 October the provisional numbers of notified vacancies remaining unfilled were 301 at the employment office and 36 at the careers office.
The vacancy figures relate only to those notified to employment offices and careers offices; vacancies notified to employment offices are estimated to be about one-third of all vacancies in the country as a whole. Because of possible duplication the figures for employment offices and careers offices should not be added together.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the number of (a) men, and (b) women who were unemployed in the Wolverhampton travel-to-work area for each of the last 18 months.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 31 October 1980, c. 384–85]: Following is the information for the Wolverhampton travel-to-work area, which comprises the Wolverhampton, Bilston and Wednesfield employment office areas:
Male Female 1979– May 5,616 2,565 June 6,199 3,097 July 7,008 3,868 August 7,162 3,930 September 6,873 3,638 October 6,816 3,417 November 6,699 3,139 December 6,767 3,325 1980– January 7,204 3,492 February 7,079 3,175 March 7,044 3,226 April 7,256 3,480 May 7,446 3,542 June 8,223 4,126 July 9,673 5,367 August 10,669 5,622 September 10,869 5,530 October* 11,106 5,271 * Provisional. Note: The figures from October 1979 are not strictly comparable with those for earlier dates because of the introduction of fortnightly attendance and payment of benefit. Estimates of this effect are not available for local areas but for the country as a whole the figures are about 1½ per cent. higher than under weekly attendance.