HC Deb 12 June 1940 vol 361 cc1275-6W
Mr. Lyons

asked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour whether he will indicate the course of employment in the city of Leicester by industries, numbers, and percentages, respectively, for May, 1940?

Mr. Assheton

The following table 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 20th May, 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 443 6.5
General Engineering, etc. 139 1.0
Printing, Publishing, and Bookbinding. 174 5.0
Hosiery 427 1.4
Boots, Shoes, etc. 525 2.7
Distributive Trades 593 3.7
All other industries and services.* 1,801 4.5
Total, all industries and services.* 4,102 3.1
* The figures given in the table are exclusive of insured agricultural workers: the number of insured persons, aged 16–64, within the agricultural scheme, who were recorded as unemployed at the Leicester Employment Exchange at 20th May, 1940, was 50.