§ Mr. Paul Deanasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many firms employ, respectively, under 500 employees and between 500 and 1,000 employees; and what is the total number of employees in each case.
§ Mr. Jim Lester,pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 19 July 1979; Vol. 970 c. 803], gave the following answer:
Comprehensive information is not available about the size of firms. Some indication can be obtained from the annual censuses of employment which, however, provide information relating to individual workplaces rather than to complete firms. The census unit, which is the basic unit for which information is reported, is normally a complete individual address, such as a shop, office or factory. Separate branches of firms thus constitute separate units. Also, in some cases there can be more than one census unit for a single address. This happens where a firm supplies information for
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Employment Office Areas Numbers registered as unemployed Percentage rate of unemployment Accrington … … 1,062 Great Harwood … … 188 Accrington Travel-to-work Area … … 1,250 4.2 Glossop … … 672 Ashton-Under-Lyne … … 1,337 Denton … … 394 Hyde … … 1,514 Moosley … … 91 Stalybridge … … 285 Ashton-Under-Lyne Travel-to-work Area … … 4,293 4.5 Birkenhead … … 7,364 Bebington … … 2,087 Ellesmere Port … … 2,262 Hoylake … … 776 Neston … … 409 Wallasey … … 3,814 Birkenhead Travel-to-work Area … … 16,712 10.7 different groups of employees, for example the monthly and weekly paid, on separate returns. Thus, in the table below, the number of firms is overstated in the lower size range and may be understated in the higher size range. The figures relate to all industries and services except agriculture and horticulture and private domestic service.
CENSUS OF EMPLOYMENT: 1976: GREAT BRITAIN
Numbers of census units and employees by size band Size bands according to numbers of employees Numbers of census units (Thousands) Numbers of employees (Thousands) 1–499 … … 1,029.6 15,603.3 500.999 … … 3.1 2,124.1