HC Deb 11 July 1940 vol 362 cc1360-1W
Sir H. Williams

asked the Minister of Labour the number of insured persons now estimated to be in civilian employment, and, for comparison, the total for a year ago?

Mr. Bevin

The information at present available is insufficient to enable a close comparison to be made with the numbers of insured persons in employment a year ago.

Mr. Lyons

asked the Minister of Labour whether he will indicate the course of employment, by industries, numbers and percentages, respectively, for the City of Leicester for the month of June, 1940?

Mr. Bevin

The table below shows, for the area served by the Leicester Employment Exchange and Juvenile Employment Bureau, the numbers of insured persons, aged 16–64 years, recorded as unemployed in the principal industries at 17th June, 1940, and these numbers expressed as percentages of the estimated numbers insured at July, 1939. In some of the industries referred to, considerable changes may have taken place, since July, 1939, in the total numbers of insured persons in the Leicester area, but the available information is insufficient to show to what extent these changes have affected the percentages of unemployment given in the table.

Industry. Number. Per cent.
Building 321 4.7
General Engineering, etc. 109 0.8
Printing, Publishing and Bookbinding. 145 4.1
Hosiery 993 3.2
Boots, Shoes, etc. 541 2.8
Distributive Trades 451 2.8
All other industries and services.* 1,223 3.1
Total, all industries and services.* 3,783 2.9
* The figures given in the table are exclusive of insured agricultural workers; the number of insured persons, aged 16–64, within the agricultural sheme, who were recorded as unemployed at the Leicester Employment Exchange at 17th June, 1940, was 35.