HC Deb 07 August 1975 vol 897 cc499-501W
Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the average weekly earnings of full-time male employees and the number of persons registered as unemployed in the area covered by each metropolitan district council and non-metropolitan county council in England and Wales, for the most recent month figures are available.

Mr. Booth

Estimates of average gross weekly earnings in April 1974 of full-time men aged 21 and over employed in each county of England and Wales and each borough of Greater London in which sample sizes were large enough to give reliable results were published in my Department'sGazette for January 1975, table C pages 31 and 32. Differences in average earnings between counties include the effect of different industrial and occupational structures. They do not therefore give a precise indication of differences in earnings for comparable work. Statistics of the numbers unemployed are compiled for employment office areas. The following table shows the figures for June 1975 added together to correspond as closely as possible with the county boundaries. I regret that statistics for metropolitan districts are not available.

TOTAL NUMBER UNEMPLOYED AT JUNE 1975
METROPOLITAN COUNTIES, INCLUDING GREATER LONDON
West Midlands 55,301
South Yorkshire 19,472
West Yorkshire 28,529
Greater Manchester 43,597
Merseyside 57,638
Tyne and Wear 34,178
Greater London 87,126
NON-METROPOLITAN COUNTIES
Bedfordshire 5,603
Berkshire 5,883
Buckinghamshire 3,035
East Sussex 7,318
Essex 16,594
Hampshire 17,119
Hertfordshire 6,658
Isle of Wight 1,489
Kent 16,389
Oxfordshire 5,223
Surrey 5,319
West Sussex 4,769
Cambridgeshire 5,209
Norfolk 9,417
Suffolk 6,742
Avon 14,624
Cornwall 8,013
Devon 16,038
Dorset 8,362
Gloucestershire 6,221
Somerset 4,227
Wiltshire 6,676
Hereford and Worcester 6,606
Salop 5,154
Staffordshire 10,906
Warwickshire 4,732
Derbyshire 10,978
Leicestershire 11,437

Lincolnshire 7,255
Northamptonshire 5,074
Nottinghamshire 14,204
Humberside 16,926
North Yorkshire 6,041
Cheshire 13,866
Lancashire 21,097
Cleveland 13,286
Cumbria 7,490
Durham 12,306
Northumberland 4,788
Clwyd 7,785
Dyfed 5,479
Gwent 8,036
Gwynedd 4,730
Mid Glamorgan 9,928
Powys 1,298
South Glamorgan 6,947
West Glamorgan 6,614