HC Deb 28 April 1980 vol 983 cc326-7W
Mr. Wigley

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing the comparison, for the latest date for which information is available to his Department, between unemployment levels in the United Kingdom and those in Austria, Israel, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland.

Mr. Jim Lester

[pursuant to his reply, 24 April 1980, c. 132]: Using national definitions, which are not directly comparable owing to differences in the concept of unemployment, coverage and methods of compilation, the total unemployment figures and rates for these countries are given below for January and February 1980.

gives the numbers of unfilled vacancies and the numbers registered as unemployed in England at April each year. The vacancy figures relate only to those notified to employment offices and careers offices: vacancies notified to employment offices are estimated in recent years to be about one-third of all vacancies in the country as a whole. Because of this, and of possible duplication between the separate figures for employment offices and careers offices, the two figures should not be

Notified unfilled vacancies
Registered Unemployed At Employment Offices At Careers Offices
April 1966 … … … … … 216,336 262,480 131,457
April 1967 … … … … … 403,828 159,189 73,811
April 1968 … … … … … 444,067 166,526 84,150
April 1969 … … … … … 432,388 184,305 88,167
April 1970 … … … … … 466,556 174,335 73,259
April 1971 … … … … … 555,997 117,594 49,737
April 1972 … … … … … 714,794 118,337 40,016
April 1973 … … … … … 502,815 247,831 66,011
April 1974 … … … … … 455,817 270,990 91,822
April 1975 … … … … … 660,006 147,217 36,776
April 1976 … … … … … 1,011,777 97,026 21,450
April 1977 … … … … … 1,084,996 130,073 23,892
April 1978 … … … … … 1,117,141 171,123 24,082
April 1979 … … … … … 1,020,000 217,109 32,172
April 1980 (provisional) … … … 1,156,232* 147,435 18,463
*The April 1980 unemployment figure 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.