HC Deb 29 November 1968 vol 774 cc198-9W
Mr. Sheldon

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity what was the average number of new persons registering each week as wholly unemployed in each year from 1950 to 1967, inclusive.

Mr. Fernyhough

The annual average numbers of wholly unemployed persons who had been on the unemployment register for one week or less at the dates of the monthly unemployment counts for the years 1962 to 1967 inclusive, are given below. I regret that comparable figures are not available for earlier years.

Thousands
1962 50.6 (1 week or less-averages of 12 months counts. excluding casuals
1963 50.5
1964 41.2
1965 41.6
1966 45.1
1967 53.1

Persons with more than one unemployment spell during the year are included in the above figures on each occasion when, at the date of the monthly count, they had been registered as wholly unemployed for one week or less.