§ Mr. Cormackasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will arrange for a pilot survey in the West Midlands to discover the number of men and women actively seeking work on a given date.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithNo. In so far as those actively seeking work are not registering as unemployed, estimates in respect of April, 1971 will become available from the results of the 1971 Census of Population,
§ Mr. Cormackasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will arrange for pilot surveys in at least two regions designed to establish how many of those actively seeking work would be prepared to move house in order to take up employment.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithMy Department intends to undertake a further programme of research into the geographical mobility of labour. Workers who are eligible under the Department's Resettlement Transfer Scheme may, of course, qualify for household removal assistance.
§ Mr. Cormackasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many skilled and unskilled men, respectively, over 50 years of age were unemployed in October, 1971; how many of these had been unemployed for more than four weeks; and what were the figures for the West Midlands.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithAt July, 1971, the latest date for which a detailed age analysis of the unemployed is available, the numbers of wholly unemployed men aged 50 years and over who had been registered for more than four weeks in Great Britain and in the West Midlands region were 174,199 and 15,180, respectively. The analysis does not indicate how many of these were skilled and how many were unskilled.
§ Mr. Cormackasked the Secretary of of State for Employment how many skilled and unskilled immigrant males, respectively, were unemployed in October, 1971; how many of these men had been unemployed for more than four weeks; and what were the figures for the West Midlands.
30W
§ Mr, Dudley SmithOn 11th October, 16,287 males born in, or with a parent or parents born in the New Commonwealth were registered as wholly unemployed in Great Britain, of whom 3,979 were registered in the West Midlands. No analysis of these figures by occupation or by duration of unemployment is available.
§ Mr. Cormackasked the Secretary of of State for Employment how many of the unemployed in October, 1971, were physically handicapped or suffering from a chronic illness; and what were the figures for the West Midlands.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithInformation is not available in the precise form requested. However, in April, 1971, there were in Great Britain 80,172 people registered under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts who were unemployed. Of these 9,367 were suffering from mental disorders and 70,805 from various types of physical disability, including chronic illness. In the West Midlands in April, 1971, 6,271 registered disabled persons were unemployed, of whom 663 were suffering from mental disorders and 5,608 from other types of disability. A similar breakdown is not available for October, 1971.