§ Mr. Geraint Howellsasked the Secretary of State for Employment what steps his Department is planning to take over the coming months to alleviate unemployment in the construction industry in Wales, bearing in mind that unemployment in this sector is three times as great as overall unemployment in Wales; and what plans his Department has to halt the decline in intake of apprentices in this sector.
§ Mr. GoldingThe temporary employment subsidy, job creation programme, youth employment subsidy and job release scheme are already available to help workers in the construction industry who are unemployed or threatened with redundancy. The construction industry will also benefit from an increased allocation of £11.2 million for housing in Wales announced on 20th June by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Wales. This is in addition to the £5¾ million allocated to Wales from the £100 million which the Chancellor announced in the Budget would be made available during 1977/79 for construction industry projects to help tackle urban and deprivation problems.
To help maintain training within the industry during the recession the Government have, for the past three years, made funds available to the Construction Industry Training Board. I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that separate figures for Wales are not available, but that some £6 million has been allocated to the CITB for the 1977/78 programme. The bulk of this will be used to contribute towards enhanced grants to employers recruiting apprentices and towards the cost of a training award scheme under which the 95W Board will itself recruit and train apprentices to make good any shortfall in recruitment by employers.
§ Mr. Geraint Howellsasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current level of unemployment in the construction industry in Wales; if he will itemise this by county; and if he will give the corresponding figures for the last five years.
§ Mr. GoldingThe first table below gives the numbers of people registered as unemployed in Wales who last worked in the construction industry. The figures for May 1977 are the latest available from the quarterly industrial analysis of the unemployed. The second table gives the county figures for May 1977. This information is from tabulations for counties now compiled by computer. Figures for the earlier dates are not readily available.
Numbers unemployed in Wales who last worked in Construction May 1972 … … 11,311 May 1973 … … 7,957 May 1974 … … 9,216 May 1975 … … 12,787 May 1976 … … 16,505 May 1977 … … 15,992 Analysis by county of the numbers unemployed in Wales at May 1977 who last worked in Construction Clwyd … … 2,089 Dyfed … … 2,156 Gwent … … 2,591 Gwynedd … … 1,453 Mid Glamorgan … … 3,192 Powys … … 270 South Glamorgan … … 1,994 West Glamorgan … … 2,247