§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list (a) the number of male employees in employment in the United Kingdom, seasonally adjusted, for each quarter since March 1970, (b) the numbers of males unemployed in each quarter on the same basis, and (c) the numbers in (b) expressed as a percentage of (a).
§ Mr. GoldingThe available information requested under (a) and (b) and the 587W numbers in (b) expressed as percentages
Seasonally adjusted Male employees in employment('000) Unemployed males excluding school-leavers ('000) (b) expressed as a percentage of (a)+(b) (a) (b) (c) 1970 March … … … 14,112 506.2 3.5 June … … … 14,005 510.2 3.5 September … … … 13,977 517.3 3.6 December … … … 13,942 530.8 3.7 1971 March … … … 13,803 581.0 4.0 June … … … 13,721 652.8 4.5 September … … … 13,564 702.3 4.9 December … … … 13,572 749.0 5.2 1972 March … … … 13,588 771.3 5.4 June … … … 13,617 709.6 5.0 September … … … 13,612 702.9 4.9 December … … … 13,684 635.5 4.4 1973 March … … … 13,782 558.5 3.9 June … … … 13,782 516.3 3.6 September … … … 13,816 467.8 3.3 December … … … 13,783 434.2 3.1 1974 March … … … 13,682 494.1 3.5 June … … … 13,671 493.9 3.5 September … … … 13,681 523.8 3.7 December … … … 13,614 † † 1975 March … … … 13,599 630.2 4.4 June … … … 13,545 733.2 5.1 September … … … 13,490 826.0 5.8 December … … … 13,429 923.1 6.4 1976 March … … … 13,410 964.6 6.7 June … … … 13,400 979.5 6.8 September … … … 13,388* 990.4 6.9 December … … … 13,399* † † 1977 March … … … 13,391* 992.0 6.9 June … … … 13,393* 1,010.0 7.0 September … … … 13,377* 1,042.9 7.2 December … … … 13,367* 1,033.5 7.2 * Employment estimates after June 1976 are provisional. † Not available owing to industrial action. Note:
The normal method of calculating unemployment rates is to express the total numbers unemployed as percentages of the numbers of employees (employed and unemployed) at the appropriate mid-year, and not at the same date. The results from the two methods differ only occasionally and never by more than 0.1.