§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing for England the proportion of unemployed persons who (a) have been unemployed for more than four weeks and (b) who are under the age of 20 years for 1966, 1971. 1976 and for the latest time for which comparable figures are available.
292W
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 23 April 1980, c. 132]: The following table gives the proportions of unemployed people in England under 20 years of age who had been registered for more than four weeks at January in each of the years specified and at January 1980, the latest date for which information is available.
Per cent. January 1966 4.3 January 1971 5.9 January 1976 13.6 January 1980 12.8
§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing for England, the average percentage total unemployment for each year from 1966 to 1980.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 23 April 1980, c. 732]: The following table gives the annual average unemployment rates for England from 1966 to 1979:
per cent. 1966 1.2 1967 2.0 1968 2.1 1969 2.1 1970 2.3 1971 3.0 1972 3.4 1973 2.3 1974 2.3 1975 3.9 1976 5.4 1977 5.7 1978 5.6 1979* 5.2 * The average for 1979 is not strictly comparable with those for earlier years because of the introduction of fortnightly attendance and payment of benefit. This had the effect of raising the monthly unemployment figures for England by about 16,300 from October 1979; but this has a negligible effect on the average rate.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the numbers who have been registered as unemployed for less than three months at the latest available date.
§ Mr. Jim LesterAt 10 January, the latest date for which the quarterly duration analysis is available, there were 569,505 people who had been registered as unemployed in Great Britain for fewer than 13 weeks.