§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if, for each travel-to 566W work area, he will indicate the percentage of the registered unemployed in the area who are (a) out of work for four weeks or less and (b) aged over 55 years and voluntarily early retired.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 3 November 1980, c. 425]: The unemployment statistics do not distinguish voluntarily early retired people. The following tables gives for each region the percentages of the numbers of registered unemployed people who, at 9 October (a) had been unemployed for up to four weeks and (b) were aged 55 and over. The information could be provided for each travel-to-work area only at disproportionate cost.
Percentage unemployed up to 4 weeks Percentage aged 55 and over South East 20.4 16.3 East Anglia 21.8 18.4 South West 19.4 18.4 West Midlands 14.6 14.3 East Midlands 16.6 17.7 Yorkshire and Humberside 16.3 15.2 North West 14.0 12.3 North 14.3 14.6 Wales 16.5 15.1 Scotland 14.9 11.5 Great Britain 16.7 14.8 Northern Ireland 13.5 7.8 United Kingdom 16.5 14.5