§ Sir P. Bryanasked the Secretary of State for Employment what further steps he is taking to improve employment prospects for school leavers in Humberside.
§ Mr. GoldingA wide range of special measures for alleviating unemployment are available to school leavers and other unemployed young people in Humberside. These include the job creation scheme under which 104 projects have been approved, providing 700 jobs of which just over half have been filled by young people; a work experience programme under which 150 young people are participating on 27 approved schemes; two Community Industry teams which are currently employing their full quota of 779W 150 young people; and the youth employment subsidy scheme under which applications for the employment of 241 young people have been made. Under special provisions for strengthening the careers service in areas of high unemployment, three additional careers officers and three employment assistants have been appointed to the Humberside Careers Service. These officers are wholly engaged on obtaining employment or training for unemployed young people and so far 300 have been placed in jobs and 550 in training as a direct result of their activities. Under the arrangements for the expansion of training facilities, industry training boards have recruited 121 young people for first-year off-the-job apprenticeship training and many have obtained apprenticeship or other training with employers with the assistance of premium training grants paid by ITBs. The Training Services Agency is also providing 14 special short industrial training courses in which 186 young people are now in training. The adequacy of these measures in Humberside, as elsewhere, is kept constantly under review.
TABLE 4A Year Total employees*(000s) Annual percentage change in total employees Total Union Membership (000s) Annual percentage change in Union Membership Density of Union Membership Per cent. 1948 … 20,732 9,362 45.2 n.a. n.a. 1958 … 22,290 9,639 43.2 n.a. n.a. 1963 … 23,558 10,067 42.7 n.a. n.a. 1968 … 23,667 10,193 43.1 -0.3 +2.7 1969 … 23,603 10,472 44.4 -0.7 +6.8 1970 … 23,446 11,179 47.7 -0.9 -0.5 1971 … 23,231 11,127 47.9 +0.3 +2.0 1972 … 23,303 11,349 48.7 +1.2 +0.8 1973 … 23,592 11,444 48.5 +0.4 +2.7 1974 … 23,689 11,755 49.6 *Estimates of total employees are based primarily on counts of national insurance cards. The figures for 1972–74 are derived from the Annual Census of Employment, adjusted for comparability with estimates for previous years. Hence the figure for 1974 differs from the figure of total employees given at Table 8A.