§ Mr. Corrieasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the average annual number of unemployed in the Cunninghame district council area in each year since 1980; and what was the average annual number of job vacancies and their descriptions.
§ Mr. YoungerPrecise figures are not available for Cunninghame district. However, the average annual number of unemployed registrants in the combined Jobcentre areas of Largs, Kilbirnie, Saltcoats, Kilwinning and Irvine in 1980, 1981 and 1982 was 8,204, 11,252 and 12,002 respectively. In October 1982 the method of calculating unemployment was changed from a registrant to a claimant based count. The average annual number of unemployed claimants in 1983 was 12,003. The following table shows the average number of vacancies notified to the jobcentres which remain unfilled at the four counts during the years 1980–83 and their description.
Unfilled vacancies (annual average) Industry 1980 1981 1982 1983 Primary 1 — 1 — Manufacturing 306 130 146 200 Construction 45 85 55 53 Service 268 181 268 432 Total 620 396 470 685 NoteVacancies notified to Great Britain jobcentres are estimated to be about one-third of all available vacancies. Moreover the number remaining unfilled at a particular date takes no account of the flow of vacancies being notified or filled. For each of the years the number of people placed in employment by the five Jobcentres was 8,134, 5,939, 6,604 and 8,146 respectively.