§ Mr. George Gardinerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list, for every year since 1970 (a) the number of school-leavers unemployed, and that number expressed as a percentage of total school-leavers and (b) the numbers of black school-leavers, and that number expressed as a percentage of total black school-leavers.
§ Mr. GoldingThe following table gives the numbers of school-leavers under 18 years of age registered as unemployed in Great Britain at each of the monthly count dates from January 1970:
309W310W311W
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 January … … 4,090 5,508 10,063 9,071 4,544 8,000* 38,024 48,187 57,425 February … … 3,123 4,501 8,374 6,608 3,088 8,351 28,033 39,398 46,634 March … … 2,168 3,419 7,081 5,043 2,019 5,831 21,641 31,293 37,639 April … … 7,475 7,598 16,472 4,202 5,578 19,912 21,269 50,356 56,706 May … … 3,419 6,524 10,052 3,288 4,946 14,259 35,082 42,043 44,688 June … … 2,593 4,912 8,386 3,603 5,429 18,367 118,188 142,709 139,181 July … … 9,063 14,815 19,218 7,699 14,411 55,260 199,372 241,552 231,700 August … … 36,322 55,528 60,933 21,623 55,976 158,203 194,545 220,377 210,881 September … … 20,696 34,733 41,987 13,016 33,426 117,874 142,301 166,156 130,663 October … … 9,933 19,299 23,228 5,140 13,413* 65,292 77,960 92,602 76,379 November … … 5,386 11,945 13,378 2,329 8,026* 40,402 * 68,579 52,932 December … … 3,821 8,605 9,745 1,793 * 32,126 48,000* 54,349 39,830 * Because of industrial action by some staff in the Department of Employment group, (a) figures for October and November December 1976 have been estimated and (b) figures for December 1974 and November 1974, for January 1975 and for 1976 are not available. I am informed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science that the numbers of school-leavers in Great Britain in each of the academic years from 1969–70 to 1976–77 were as follows:
Thousands 1969–70 … … … 691.1 1970–71 … … … 692.3 1971–72 … … … 727.6 1972–73 … … … 460.6† 1973–74 … … … 766.1 1974–75 … … … 779.9 1975–76 … … … 798.5 1976–77 … … … 842.6 †The minimum school-leaving age was raised to 16 from 1 September 1972. As a result a much smaller number of pupils than usual were able to leave school in 1972–73. The level of unemployed school-leavers depends on the time of year at which the count is taken and it is not possible to calculate a meaningful single percentage rate for each year.
Both sets of statistics do not distinguish school-leavers by race or ethnic origin.