HC Deb 17 July 1978 vol 954 cc31-3W
Mrs. Kellett-Bowman

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the percentage fall in the number of registered unemployed in May 1978 in Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

Mr. Golding

The figures below give the percentage fall in the numbers of registered unemployed between April and May

UNEMPLOYMENT RATES
Per cent.
South East East Anglia South West West Midlands East Midlands Yorkshire and Humberside
March 1974 … 1.6 2.0 2.6 2.1 2.2 2.7
July 1977 … 4.9 5.7 7.2 6.7 5.6 6.5
August 1977 … 5.0 5.7 7.2 6.7 5.7 6.5
September 1977 … 4.9 5.6 7.2 6.6 5.5 6.4
October 1977 … 4.6 5.4 7.2 6.0 5.1 6.0
November 1977 … 4.5 5.3 7.2 5.7 5.0 5.9
December 1977 … 4.4 5.3 7.1 5.5 5.0 5.9
January 1978 … 4.6 5.4 7.4 5.7 5.2 6.1
February 1978 … 4.4 5.5 7.2 5.5 5.2 6.0
March 1978 … 4.3 5.3 6.9 5.3 5.0 5.8
April 1978 … 4.2 5.3 6.8 5.4 5.0 5.8
May 1978 … 4.0 5.0 6.3 5.2 4.8 5.6
June 1978 … 4.1 5.0 6.3 5.3 5.1 5.9

North West North Wales Scotland Northern Ireland
March 1974 … 3.4 4.5 3.8 4.1 5.4
July 1977 … 8.3 9.3 8.6 8.8 12.6
August 1977 … 8.3 9.4 8.8 8.9 12.6
September 1977 … 8.2 9.1 8.8 8.5 12.3
October 1977 … 7.7 8.7 8.6 8.3 11.3
November 1977 … 7.6 8.8 8.5 8.4 11.2
December 1977 … 7.5 8.7 8.5 8.4 11.2
January 1978 … 7.7 9.1 8.7 9.2 11.7
February 1978 … 7.5 8.9 8.5 8.9 11.5
March 1978 … 7.2 8.7 8.3 8.6 11.4
April 1978 … 7.3 8.6 8.4 8.2 11.8
May 1978 … 7.0 8.2 8.1 7.7 11.4
June 1978 … 7.5 9.0 8.0 8.4 11.9

Mr. Madden

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he is taking to ease the plight of the increasing number of adults who have been unemployed for more than 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Booth

The special temporary employment programme which came into operation on 1st April will provide up to 25,000 places focused on the long-term unemployed. I have also arranged for a small experiment to be carried out to assess the effectiveness of a subsidy to employers who take on workers who have been registered as unemployed for

1978, published by the Statistical Office of the European Communities:

Germany 8.7
Luxembourg 8.2
Denmark 5.8
United Kingdom 4.5

Mrs. Kellett-Bowman

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the percentage rate of unemployment of each region of the United Kingdom for each of the past 12 months and in March 1974.

Mr. Golding

Following is the information:

12 months or more. The experiment is intended to assess the effects of a subsidy—to be called the adult employment subsidy—of £20 a week for a period of up to 26 consecutive weeks for employers recruiting long-term unemployed people aged 19 to 64 (men) and 19 to 59 (women). The experiment, which will begin early in August, subject to the agreement of the EEC, will be run in Merseyside, Tyneside and Leeds areas.

Parliamentary approval for the experiment will be sought in a Supplementary Estimate for the DE vote. Pending that approval, any necessary expenditure will be met by repayable advances from the Contingencies Fund.

In addition, the Manpower Services Commission is at my request looking at the problem of the long-term unemployed and policies to help them.