§ 83. Mr. Mawbyasked the Minister of Labour what factors determine the dates on which the monthly counts of employment and unemployment are taken and the day on which these figures are published; why the count of unemployment and employment relates to different dates; and whether he will publish each of these figures as soon as it is available.
§ Mr. Iain MacleodSince 1949 it has been the practice to publish a manpower communique dealing comprehensively with statistics of employment, unemployment, short-time working and vacancies, and the relevant dates have been determined so that all the detailed material will normally be available at approximately the same time. The information about employment is obtained mainly from returns submitted by a very large number of employers and takes longer to analyse; it therefore relates to an earlier date than the unemployment count. In some months, partly owing to public holidays, it is not practicable to space the dates for the different counts at the usual intervals.
The totals of the April count of registered unemployed are already ascertainable, but the March returns of persons in civil employment were delayed until after Easter and the result will not be available until about 14th May. In view of this exceptionally long gap, I intend to release the unemployment figures separately so that they can appear on Thursday morning, 30th April. The communique will include details of the regional totals of unemployment amongst young persons. I will consider whether 116W the issue of separate statistics of employment and unemployment should become the normal practice in future.