§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of official jobcentre vacancies consisted of(a) armed forces and (b) other vacancies which are counted more than once by reason of being registered in more than one job centre, for each of the last three years. [114684]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Graham Brady, dated 20 March 2000:
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on double counting of armed forces vacancies in jobcentres.Armed forces vacancies are not counted more than once by reason of being registered in more than one Jobcentre. The armed forces vacancies displayed in Jobcentres are only a small sample of the overall numbers available. Some 40 Jobcentres around the country are nominated to take vacancies from their local armed forces careers office. There will be some duplication in the displays, as information about vacancies is shared between Jobcentres, but there is no problem with overcounting in the statistics which are obtained from the computer records.Similarly other vacancies are only counted by the Jobcentre which takes them. Any duplication, if it exists, is likely to be minimal as employers have no need to notify a vacancy to more than one Jobcentre.