§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons under 18 years of age are unemployed in the Northern Region at the latest available date.
§ Mr. GoldingAt July 1976, the latest date for which an analysis by age is available, 27,311 people aged under 18 years were registered as unemployed in the Northern region. This figure included 21,557 school leavers. Later information for school leavers at October 1976 shows the number unemployed to have fallen to 8,192.
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people are awaiting admission to Government training centres in the Northern Region; and what is the maximum waiting period for admission.
§ Mr. GoldingI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that on 30th September 1,850 people were awaiting admission to skillcentres—formerly Government Training Centres—in the standard Northern Region. The maximum waiting period for a course is 12 months from the date of application. Recruitment to particular courses may be suspended in areas where the waiting time exceeds 12 months. When recruitment is suspended a reserve list is maintained. Applicants are advised that they will be invited to make an application for training when recruitment is resumed. In these circumstances, the total waiting time between the date of an inquiry about training and the date of starting training could be considerably in excess of 12 months.
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the number of apprenticeships that are on record at present at employment offices in the Northern Region.
§ Mr. GoldingI regret that the information is not available. Statistics of notified vacancies remaining unfilled at offices of the Employment Service Agency and local offices of the Local Education Authority Careers Service do not identify those notified for apprentices.
163W
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if he will give the figures for registered unemployed and unfilled vacancies in the Northern Region, respectively, for the latest month for which statistics are available, in comparison with the levels for 1974 and 1975;
(2) what is the current total number of unemployed males and females in the Northern Region; and what were the
NUMBERS REGISTERED AS UNEMPLOYED AND NUMBERS OF NOTIFIED UNFILLED VACANCEIS IN NORTH REGION Numbers registered as unemployed Numbers of notified vacancies remaining unfilled Males Females Total at Employment offices at Careers offices October 1972 … … … 64,884 14,333 79,217 6,563 1,504 October 1973 … … … 44,786 8,867 53,653 15,952 4,838 October 1974 … … … 50,903 10,862 61,765 13,628 2,378 October 1975 … … … 67,757 20,245 88,002 8,373 1,127 October 1976 … … … 75,151 29,453 104,604 8,509 847 The vacancy figures relate only to vacancies notified to employment offices and careers offices and are not a measure of total vacancies. Because of possible duplication the two series should not be added together. Vacancies are not now recorded separately for males and females.
Because of industrial action by some staff in the Department of Employment Group, figures for November 1976 are not available.
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment what were the numbers of employees in employment in manufacturing industries in the Northern Region in each of the last four years.
§ Mr. GoldingFollowing is the information:
June 1973 … … … 462,000 June 1974 … … … 467,000 June 1975 … … … 454,000 June 1976 … … … 439,000* * Provisional
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment what percentage of those currently registered unemployed in the Northern Region is made up of people over 60 years of age; and how this compares with the remainder in Great Britain.
§ Mr. GoldingAt July 1976, the latest date for which an age analysis of the unemployed is available, the proportions aged 60 years and over were 9 per cent. in North region and 9.6 per cent. in the rest of Great Britain.
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many skilled workers have been made redundant, or have been placed on short-time working
164Wcomparable figures for the nearest convenient date in each year from 1972 to 1975, inclusive;
(3) what was the total number of job vacancies notified to his Department, male and female, in the Northern Region; and what were the comparable figures for the nearest convenient date in each year from 1972 to 1975, inclusive.
§ Mr. GoldingFollowing is the information available:
in the Northern Region, in the last period for which figures are available.
§ Mr. GoldingThe numbers of employees on short-time working are not analysed by occupation and I regret, therefore, that the information is not available. I am informed by the Manpower Services Commision that the information relating to the number of skilled workers who have been made redundant is not available in the form requested. However, the total number of redundancies recorded as due to occur in the Northern Region during the period 1st December 1975 to 30th November 1976 was 15,850.
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many school leavers in each of the last three years, respectively, who have signed the register for employment at each of the employment offices in the Northern Region have been placed in employment; and how many are still unemployed up to the latest convenient date.
§ Mr. GoldingI regret that the information requested about placings is not available because these statistics do not distinguish school leavers separately. The following table compares the numbers of 165W unemployed school leavers in the Northern Region at August and October of the years specified.
1974 1975 1976 August … 11,949 19,422 19,551 October … 1,950 7,063 8,192 Difference … —9,999 —12,359 —11,359
§ Mr. Cowansasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he has any plans to extend the number of places for retraining unemployed men and disabled men, respectively, in Government training centres in the Northern Region.
§ Mr. GoldingThe Manpower Services Commission informs me that the Training Services Agency has recently carried out a review of the training needs of the Northern Region. As a result of that review, the agency is satisfied that the facilities available at the skillcentres in the region are adequate to meet the current and anticipated demands, including those from unemployed men and disabled men. There are no plans, therefore, to establish any additional facilities in the region.