§ Mr. GogginsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many young people under the age of 25 years have been unemployed for over six months in(a) Great Britain, (b) England, (c) Manchester, (d) Trafford and (e) Wythenshawe and Sale East. [1643]
§ Mrs. Liddell[holding answer 2 June 1997]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Paul Goggins, dated 3 June 1997:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to reply to your recent question asking how many young people under the age of 25 years have been unemployed for over six months in (a) Great Britain, (b) England, (c) Manchester, (d) Trafford and (e) Wythenshawe and Sale East.The ONS produces two measures of unemployment. The first, derived from the quarterly Labour Force Survey, is defined on a consistent and internationally recognised basis set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and counts as unemployed, people who are: a) without a paid job; b) available to start work within the next two weeks and c) have either looked for work in the past four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained.ONS also publishes the monthly claimant count, which is based on the UK administrative system and includes all people claiming unemployment-related benefits at Employment Service offices on the day of the monthly count, who on that day had signed on as 149W unemployed and available to do any suitable work. All people who attend an Employment Service office to sign are counted, irrespective of whether they are actually receiving benefit.Both measures are described and compared in the ONS booklet How exactly is Unemployment Measured. Please find a copy enclosed with this reply.Information on length of time ILO unemployed is generally available from the Labour Force Survey, a quarterly basis down to county, or former county, level. The most recent information available is for autumn 1996. Some information for local authorities is available from the annual LFS Local Area Database (LAD). However, in order to protect confidentiality the database only includes key data items and length of time unemployed is not among them. If it were available the figure for Trafford would be less than the threshold for reliable estimates. No figures less than this threshold can be released. Further information on the Local Area Database is available in the May 1996 edition of Labour Market Trends (pages 239–246) which is available in the House of Commons library. No information about parliamentary constituencies is available from the LFS. The latest available figures are shown in the table below:
Unadjusted claimant unemployment1 ILO unemployed2 Great Britain 171,572 246,000 England 145,266 211,000 Greater Manchester county 8,089 13,000 Trafford LAD3 413 n/a Wythenshawe and Sale East PCA4 426 n/a Notes:
1By duration of six months or more, April 1997.
2For at least six months (unadjusted, autumn 1996 LFS).
3Local authority district.
4Parliamentary constituency area.
Source:
ONS.
§ Mr. Ben ChapmanTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to revise the method of calculating the unemployment statistics. [1092]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe Director of the Office for National Statistics is responsible for deciding the form, coverage and timing of release of statistics issued by his Office, taking into account the views of customers. ONS is presently consulting customers on the future presentation of labour market statistics; the consultation exercise was launched through an article in the Labour Market Trends published on 8 May. Comments on the proposals should be sent to ONS by 14 June.
The proposals set out for consultation reflect the House of Commons Employment Select Committee recommendation that more prominence should be given to the measure of unemployment which is based on the internationally agreed ILO definition.
§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people aged 18 to 24 years who had been unemployed for more than six months found jobs in each of the past five years; how many people in that age group became unemployed for more than six months in each of the past five years; and how many such people on average were unemployed for more than six months in each of the past five years, [1631]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange a reply to be given.
150WLetter from Tim Holt to Mr. David Willetts, dated 3 June 1997:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to your recent question on unemployment of those aged 18 to 24 years.Please note that information on the destination of leavers from the claimant count is only available since January 1995, therefore this information has only been provided for the last two years. Also, this information only includes those claims that were terminated with a known destination. Approximately 25 per cent. of all terminated claims have an unknown destination.The results are shown in the attached tables.
Number of people aged 18–24 years who had been claimant unemployed for more than six months, who left because they had found work, 1995–96, Great Britain Year Number of people (thousands) 1995 163.5 1996 152.2 Source:
JUVOS leaving marker file.
Number of people aged 18–24 years crossing the six month duration threshold, 1992–96, Great Britain Year Number of people (thousands) 1992 479.8 1993 472.8 1994 402.1 1995 362.6 1996 327.4 Source:
JUVOS Cohort (April 1997).
§ Mr. PaiceTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many persons aged 18 to 24 years are currently seeking and available for work; [1649]
(2) how many persons aged 18 to 24 years who are currently registered unemployed have never been employed; [1651]
(3) how many persons aged 18 to 24 years are currently registered unemployed; [1647]
(4) how many persons aged 18 to 24 years who are seeking work are also undertaking part or full-time study. [1650]
§ Mrs. LiddellThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange a reply to be given.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. James Paice, dated 3 June 1997:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to your four recent questions (1647, 1649, 1650 and 1651) about 18 to 24 year olds in the labour market asking how many are: (1) registered unemployed,(2) currently seeking and available for work, (3) registered unemployed who have never been employed (4) seeking work and also undertaking part or full-time study.The ONS produces two measures of unemployment. The first, derived from the quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS), is defined on an internationally-recognised consistent basis set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and counts as unemployed people who are:
- (a) without a paid job;
151 - (b) available to start work within the next two weeks and
- (c) have either looked for work in the past four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained.
ONS also publishes the monthly claimant count, which is based on the UK administrative system and includes all people claiming unemployed-related benefits at Employment Service offices on the day of the monthly count, who on that day had signed on as unemployed and available to do any suitable work. All people who attend an Employment Service office to sign are counted, irrespective of whether they are actually receiving unemployment-related benefits.Both measures are described and compared in the ONS booklet How Exactly is Unemployment Measured?, a copy of which is enclosed with this reply. This booklet is also available in the House of Commons Library.A total of 421,656 18 to 24 year olds were registered unemployed (claimant unemployed) in the UK in April 1997. This compares with an estimate of 551,000 18–24 year olds ILO unemployed according to the autumn 1996 Labour Force Survey. The group you refer to in your first question "currently seeking and available for work" is broadly the same as the ILO definition of unemployment except that this also includes those who are waiting to start a job they have already obtained.No information is available from the claimant count about those registered unemployed who have never been employed. According to the autumn 1996 Labour Force Survey there were an estimated 179,000 18–24 year olds who were ILO unemployed and had never had a paid job. 38,000 of these were in full-time education and therefore not eligible to claim unemployment related benefits.An estimated total of 127,000 18–24 year olds not in employment had been seeking work within the past four weeks and undertaking full or part-time study according to the autumn 1996 UK LFS. Of these 95,000 were ILO unemployed (ie seeking and available to start work within the next two weeks or waiting to start a job already obtained). The rest are categorised as economically inactive because they were not available to start work within two weeks. 79,000 out of the above total of 127,000 said that they were looking for part-time work. It may be assumed that many of these would be planning to combine their studies with part-time work, although they cannot be separately identified.