§ Mr. Pikeasked the Paymaster General how many people were unemployed for more than one year in 1979 and each subsequent year in (a) the Burnley travel-to-work area and (h) the north-west region.
§ Mr. LangFollowing is the available information which is in the Library. The figures are affected by the 1983 Budget provisions which mean that certain older men, mainly aged 60 or over, no longer have to sign on to receive benefit, and by the change in the timing of compilation of unemployment statistics in March 1986. Larger discontinuities occurred in the local area statistics in 1982 and 1983, with the change in the basis of the count, the introduction of ward-based statistics and the revision of boundaries of travel-to-work areas. Therefore the figures are not directly comparable.
343W
North-West Region—Burnley trawl-to-work area Number Claimants—Unemployed for over 12 months April 1983 173,517 — April 1984 188,540 2,360 April 1985 201,547 2,411 April 1986 203,662 2,425
Number Registrants—Unemployed for over 12 months April 1979 60,088 April 1980 59,088 April 1981 84,500 April 1982 152,154