§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will provide a table showing (a) the total number of vacancies in every quarter since the beginning of 1970, (b) the total number of people unemployed in every quarter since the beginning of 1970 and (c) the figures in column (a) as a percentage of those in column (b).
§ Mr. GoldingThe following table gives the numbers of unfilled vacancies and the numbers registered as unemployed in Great Britain quarterly from 1970. The vacancy statistics relate only to vacancies notified to employment offices and careers offices; vacancies notified to employment offices are estimated to be about one-third of all vacancies in the country as a whole. Because of this and possible duplication between the separate figures for employment offices830W and careers offices, the two series should not be added together or used to calculate the percentages requested.
Unfilled Vacancies at Employment Offices at Careers Offices Numbers unemployed 1970 March 184,074 79,866 601,772 June 203,826 91,675 523,638 September 191,562 69,334 563,147 December 159,328 51,600 604,286 1971 March 130,206 48,618 700,040 June 144,644 53,133 687,219 September 124,777 44,017 796,278 December 107,142 31,607 867,588 1972 March 118,520 39,138 924,677 June 155,525 47,326 765,456 September 157,830 47,462 822,969 December 179,876 45,544 743,099 1973 March 244,461 62,367 682,637 June 323,250 95,954 544,957 September 353,487 123,518 526,894 December 348,240 108,038 484,296 1974 March 266,523 85,791 590,071 June 336,368 111,091 514,632 September 307,203 91,658 617,810 December * * * 1975 March 178,024 42,931 768,423 June 158,996 34,811 828,473 September 140,786 26,807 1,096,902 December 101,035 19,679 1,152,499 1976 March 106,910 21,226 1,234,573 June 124,837 27,719 1,277.884 September 139,347 25,596 1,395,115 December * * 1,316,000 1977 March 142,522 22,895 1,328,081 June 166,804 27,012 1,390,401 September 158,953 21,055 1,541,844 December 152,608 16,729 1,419,726 1978 March 184,173 24,101 1,398,980 June 225,949 30,557 1,381,403 September 231,150 29,998 1,446,708 * Information is not available because of industrial action by some staff in the Department of Employment Group.