§ Mr. Fordasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity if she will provide an analysis of the total unemployment figures to the latest convenient date, giving the numbers included in the following categories, namely, unemployable, disabled, redundant workers retired before the age of 65 years, occupational pensioners retired before the age of 65 years, married women, seasonal workers and temporarily stopped.
§ Mr. Dell:At 13th April, 1970, 616,655 persons were registered as unemployed in Great Britain. They included 31,421 married women, and 23,160 persons who were temporarily stopped. The statistics do not distinguish separately redundant workers retired before the age of 65 or seasonal workers. Information about disabled persons is not yet available for April, 1970. At 9th March, 1970, of a total of 623,905 persons registered as unemployed, 62,869 were registered disabled persons. There were in addition 10,168 unemployed registered disabled persons who were considered suitable only for employment under special conditions and who were not included in the statistics of the registered unemployed.
At January, 1969 it was estimated that the numbers registered as unemployed included about 45,000 male occupational pensioners between the ages of 60 and 65.
No one on the unemployed register is regarded as unemployable although some may have considerable difficulty in obtaining or retaining employment.