§ 46. Sir G. de Freitasasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he is aware that between 8th March and 5th April unemployment increased more in the East Midlands than in any of the other nine regions in Great Britain; and
NUMBERS UNEMPLOYED Sweden Denmark* Norway Switzerland United Kingdom November, 1957 … … … — 148,679 — — — December, 1957 … … … — — 27,541 — — January, 1958 … … … 48,057 122,063 39,438 9,091 415,235 (439,929) November, 1970 … … … — 21,300 — — — December, 1970 … … … — — 19,451 — — January, 1971 … … … 47,616 — — 199 714,379 (731,190) * Unemployment among insured members of trade unions funds. Because of differences in scope, definitions and concepts, the statistics for different countries are not necessarily comparable. Two sets of figures are shown for the United Kingdom, that is, the wholly unemployed and, in brackets, the total registered unemployed.
§ Mr. Sillarsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many skilled and unskilled male workers, respectively, over 45 years of age are presently unemployed in each of the planning regions of the United Kingdom; what percentage of the total unemployed they represent, and how this compares with the past 24 months.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithI regret that this information is not available. Analyses of
420Wwhat special steps he contemplates to remedy this situation.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantI have been asked to reply.
Although there has been an increase, unemployment in the East Midlands is no higher than the national average. Special measures for this region would not be justified in present circumstances.