§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Paymaster General what were the numbers of redundancies, the numbers of new jobs and the numbers and average rates of unemployment for each year since 1977 for the Grimsby travel-to-work area, the Scunthorpe travel-to-work area and the Lincoln travel-to-work area.
§ Mr. LangFollowing is the available information. Table 1 gives the numbers of redundancies confirmed as due to occur for each of the years requested. Information about total job gains and total job losses is not available from the Department's statistics, but an indication of the net changes can be seen by comparing the levels of employment at different dates. For the individual former travel-to-work areas requested the available information, which comes from the census of employment and relates to net changes in employees in employment, is in table 2. Table 3 gives the available unemployment statistics which are also in the Library. The figures are not comparable over the whole period because of the change in travel-to-work boundaries, the change in the basis of the unemployment count in October 1982, and the 1983 Budget provisions which meant that certain men, mainly aged 60 and over, no longer need to sign on to obtain benefit.
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Table 1—Redundancies confirmed as due to occur* Year Travel-to-work area† Grimsby Scunthorpe Lincoln 1977 188 115 635 1978 806 91 267 1979 nil 623 667 1980 1,005 2,579 1,363 1981 1,886 4,407 129
Table 2—Employees in Employment Former travel-to-work area Census Year (September) Grimsby Scunthorpe Lincoln Level Change Level Change Level Change 1976 71,098 — 55,002 — 59,900 — 1977 71,323 +225 55,406 +404 61,366 +1,466 1978 71,513 +190 56,661 +1,255 60,768 -598 1981 64,792 -6,721 41,216 -15,445 57,961 -2,807
Table 3—Unemployment Former travel-to-work areas Grimsby Scunthorpe Lincoln Year Number Rate Number Rate Number Rate Unemployed Registrants 1977 5,002 6.5 3,218 5.0 3,826 5.9 1978 5,215 6.8 3,702 5.6 4,173 6.4 1979 4,688 6.1 3,610 5.5 4,163 6.4 1980 6,463 8.4 5,580 8.4 5,260 8.1 1981* 9,698 12.6 10,869 16.4 7,933 12.2 1982† 10,678 13.9 11,516 17.4 8,392 12.9 Unemployed Claimants 1983 11,295 14.7 10,629 16.1 8,207 12.0 Present travel-to-work areas 1984 11,936 15.4 9,866 19.2 7,880 13.0 1985 12,449 16.1 9,578 18.6 8,376 13.9 * 1981 is the average of 10 months † 1982 is the average of 10 months only; January to October.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Paymaster General if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each EEC country the numbers employed in the steel, coal, textile, clothing, shoe, man-made fibre, shipbuilding and motor-vehicle industries, together with the corresponding figures for 1972.
§ Mr. LangThe information requested is available in published form. The latest available data for most countries relate to 1983, and the earliest on a consistent basis relate to 1974. They are contained in "Employment and Unemployment 1985", published by the statistical office of the European Communities, a copy of which is in the Library. The relevant information for production and preliminary processing of metals (including the steel industry) is on page 138, for extraction and briquetting of solid fuels and coke ovens (approximating to the coal industry) on page 134, for the textile industry on page 146, for the clothing and footwear industries (combined) on page 147, for the man-made fibres industry on page 140, for manufacture of other means of transport (which includes shipbuilding) on page 144, and for manufacture of motor vehicles etc. on page 143.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Paymaster General whether he will publish in the Official Report a table
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Year Travel-to-work area† Grimsby Scunthorpe Lincoln 1982 880 1,466 1,020 1983 1,436 1,280 1,220 1984 1,081 389 1,399 1985 322 342 440 * Confirmed by the Manpower Services Commission as due to occur and based on notifications of impending redundancies involving ten or more workers. † Best fit of jobcentres to TTWA. showing the number of full-time employees in the labour force each year since 1970, divided into male and female and non-adult; and if he will provide similar information for part-time workers.
§ Mr. LangInformation is not available in the exact form requested.
The available information from the regular quarterly employees in employment series is presented in table 1 below.
The labour force survey provides information on a different basis, but allows an analysis by age. The available information, relating to years in which the survey has been carried out since 1979, is given in table 2 below.
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TABLE 1 Employees in employment in Great Britain June Males full-time thousand Males part-time thousand Males all thousand Females full-time thousand Females part-time thousand 1971 12,840 584 — 5,468 2,757 1972 12,719 600 — 5,454 2,877 1973 12,813 665 — 5,442 3,163 1974 12,675 689 — 5,512 3,421 1975 12,542 697 — 5,422 3,551
June Males full-time thousand Males part-time thousand Males all thousand Females full-time thousand Females part-time thousand 1976 12,398 699 — 5,366 3,585 1977 12,395 681 — 5,433 3,617 1978 12,396 705 — 5,486 3,688 1979 — — 13,183 5,585 3,870 1980 — — 13,018 5,500 3,941 1981 — — 12,278 5,290 3,817 1982 — — 11,945 5,121 3,861 1983 — — 11,699 3,958 4,937 1984 — — 11,660 4,942 4,179 1985 — — 11,705 4,942 4,350 Note:
In this table a part-time employee is defined as one who normally works for 30 hours or less. The full-time, part-time split for males is available only at dates for which a Census of Employment was conducted.
At the Census for Employment in September 1981 there were 12,229,000 male employees of whom 11,511,000 were full-time and 9,085,000 females of whom 5,304,000 were full-time.
Table 2 Labour Force Survey data on employees* in Great Britain Thousands Males Females Aged 16–19 Aged 20+ Aged 16–19 Aged 20+ 1979 Full-time† 1,002 11,902 838 4,496 Part-time† 41 235 75 3,631 All employees‡ 1,044 12,137 913 8,127 1981 Full-time† 840 10,798 727 4,381 Part-time† 122 287 181 3,594 All employees‡ 975 11,237 917 8,058 1983 Full-time† 742 10,542 616 4,354 Part-time† 114 251 200 3,399 All employees‡ 860 10,814 822 7,907 1984 Full-time† 768 10,443 652 4,383 Part-time† 163 292 236 3,729 All employees‡ 932 10,745 888 8,116 1985 Full-time† 651 10,453 574 4,428 Part-time† 157 277 250 3,780 All employees‡ 808 10,733 824 8,210 * The Labour Force Survey estimates relate to the spring of each year. Figures for 1985 exclude those employees on Government schemes, whereas earlier years include those on schemes if reported as in employment as an employee. † In this table an employee is shown as full-time or part-time according to whether he considers his job to be a full or part-time job. ‡ Includes those who did not state whether their job was full or part-time.
§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Paymaster General if he will give the latest unemployment figures, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, for (a) Great. Britain and (b) Scotland; and if he will compare them with the similar figures for (i) the EEC countries as a whole, (ii) Norway, (iii) Sweden, (iv) Finland and (v) Austria.
§ Mr. LangThe figures are based on national definitions, using different methods of compilation, and should not be used for the purposes of comparison. The available information for February is given in the following table.
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Unemployment: February 1986 Total (thousands) Percentage rate Great Britain* 3,212 13.6 Scotland* 363 16.1 EC (9) 13,376 11.8 EC (12) 16,697 — Norway 42 2.1 Sweden 120 2.8 Finland† 193 7.6 Austria 202 6.9 *For Great Britain and Scotland the latest figures for March are 3,199.4 (13.6 per cent.) and 359.3 (15.9 per cent.) respectively. †January figures.
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Paymaster General what was the total number of persons registered at jobcentres in January 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985 and 1986.
§ Mr. LangThe following table gives the total numbers of persons (employed and unemployed) registered at jobcentres in Great Britain for the dates requested. From October 1982 it has not been necessary to register as a condition of claiming benefit, nor is it necessary to register in order to use the jobcentre.
Number January 1979 1,416,958 January 1980 1,450,451 January 1981 2,242,316 January 1982 2,803,832 January 1983 2,626,618 January 1984 1,011,886 January 1985 543,596 January 1986 419,842
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Paymaster General what was the number of persons included in the unemployment figures or in receipt of supplementary benefit who had a part-time job in January in 1979, 1983 and 1986.
§ Mr. LangFigures are not collected in the form requested, but the number of supplementary benefit claimants who had earnings of their own (as distinct from the earnings of a partner) taken into account in the benefit assessment were about 40,000 in November 1979 and 126,000 in December 1983. Figures for 1986 are not available.
While these figures will include some claimants who are included in the unemployment count, the total number of persons in the count who had a part-time job is not available from the administrative sources. However, according to the labour force survey, there were about 90,000 claimants in the unemployment count who had a part-time job in the spring of 1983. Figures are not available for 1979, not yet for 1986.
§ Mr. Michael Forsythasked the Paymaster General whether he is satisfied with the accuracy of the returns submitted by Central regional council for calculating the level of unemployment in the Stirling constituency.
§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Paymaster General if he will publish the latest unemployment figures, on a non-seasonally adjusted basis for (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland.
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§ Mr. LangThe following information is in the Library. The numbers of unemployed claimants as at 6 March 1986 were:
Number England 2,655,808 Scotland 359,318 Wales 184,247 Northern Ireland 124,403
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Paymaster General what is his latest estimate of the number of persons who have more than one job.
§ Mr. LangPreliminary results from the 1985 labour force survey indicate that in the spring of 1985 775,000 people had a second job, either as an employee or self employed, in addition to their main activity.