Mr. W. Joseph Stewartasked the Minister of Labour what is being done, apart from the trading estates, to provide work for the large number of people now unemployed in the county of Durham, namely, 58,000?
§ Mr. E. BrownAs the hon. Member was informed on 20th March last by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply, certain new productive capacity is being planned in Durham County which will involve substantial additions to employment.
920Wment in the Greenock area, by industries, numbers and percentages as at the last available date; and the corresponding figures for the previous month and for a year ago, respectively?
§ Mr. AsshetonThe table below shows the numbers of insured persons, aged 16–64,in the principal industries, recorded at the Greenock Employment Exchange as unemployed on 11th March, 1940, 12th February, 1940, and 13th March, 1939, and these numbers expressed as percentages of the estimated numbers insured at July of the previous year. 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 Greenock area, but the available information is insufficient to show to what extent these changes have affected the percentages of unemployment given in the table.
Furthermore, in association with representatives of employers and workpeople in the coal-mining industry, reviews of the unemployed register are being undertaken in a number of mining areas in Durham where there is an unsatisfied demand for labour. The object of the reviews is to determine the extent to which men registered in mining occupations can be placed in mining employment and to assist the industry so far as possible in meeting its war-time labour requirements. The hon. Member will also be aware of the intense activity in various parts of Durham where factories and shipyards are working on 921W Government orders. It is not possible at this date to estimate the full extent of the demand in the near future in Durham, but if strategic or technical considerations prevent full employment in the area, I am confident that all able-bodied unemployed who are not liable to compulsory military service will wish to take part in the war effort either by assisting in other areas where there are urgent demands for labour or by filling the demands for volunteers in the Forces that may be indicated from time to time. My Department will give every help to men desiring to take advantage of such opportunities.