§ Mr. Prescottasked the Paymaster General why his Department has stopped publishing the details of the numbers of people on temporary employment measures and the YTS with the unemployment and vacancy figures; and if he will arrange for these figures to be made available on a monthly basis together with their effect on the register.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe numbers of people assisted by employment measures and YTS are now published regularly in theEmployment Gazette.
It is difficult to calculate precisely the effect on the unemployment count of employment measures; their estimated average effectiveness was set out in table 3.7.13 of the public expenditure White Paper, Cmnd. 9702. YTS is a permanent training scheme.
Although estimates of the overall effect on unemployment of the employment measures are available, it is not appropriate to present these routinely as a reliable monthly indicator because of the uncertain assumptions involved in their calculation. It is also not necessary to present them since they represent only one detail of the overall labour market.