HC Deb 22 November 1976 vol 919 cc946-7W
Mr. Wyn Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of (a) the working population, and (b) those in employment is engaged in (i) the public and, (ii) the private sector in Wales; and how these percentages compare with: (c) England and, (d) Scotland.

Mr. Golding

I regret that this information is not available. Separate employment estimates for the public and private sectors are compiled only for the United Kingdom as a whole as published inEconomic Trends and "National Income and Expenditure: 1965–75".

Mr. Wyn Roberts

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of those currently unemployed in Wales were previously employed in (a) the public and, (b) the private sectors.

Mr. Golding

The precise information is not available. The numbers unemployed are analysed according to the industry in which they last worked. This analysis is based on the Minimum List Headings of the Standard Industrial Classifications which do not distinguish the public and private sectors separately. Separate unemployment figures for the private and public sectors can be calculated only in an imprecise way by allocating the figures for each Minimum List Heading of the Standard Industrial Classification to the sector appropriate to the majority of those in that classification. On this basis, which is statistically far from satisfactory, and excluding those who could not be classified by industry, the proportions of those unemployed in Wales who last worked in the public and private sectors were 20.3 and 79.7 per cent., respectively. The information relates to the count made on 12th August, the latest date for which an industrial analysis is available.

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