§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the unemployment figures for the Bedford district for the most recent month for which statistics are available; and how the figures compare with other East Anglian and East Midlands centres.
§ Mr. BoothAt 12th May, 1,502 unemployed people were registered at Bedford and the rate of unemployment was 2.3 per cent.
The following table shows rates of unemployment at that date for other areas of East Anglia and East Midlands:
East Anglia Per cent. Cambridge … … … 1.7 Great Yarmouth … … … 4.4 Ipswich* … … … 2.8 Lowestoft … … … 3.8 Norwich* … … … 3.0 Peterborough … … … 3.0 East Midlands Chesterfield* … … … 3.6 Coalville … … … 4.6 Corby … … … 3.7 Derby … … … 2.6 Kettering … … … 2.3 Leicester … … … 4.0 Lincoln … … … 3.6 Loughborough … … … 1.9 Mansfield* … … … 2.6 Northampton* … … … 2.4 Nottingham* … … … 3.4 Sutton-in-Ashfield … … … 3.5 *Travel-to-work area.