§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of employees in employment in each of the standard industrial classification cate- 425W gories from I to XXIV in mid-1966, mid-1971 and mid-1976 and at the latest available time.
Thousands Standard Industrial Classification Order June 1966 June 1971 June 1976 December 1979 (Provisional) I. Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing 565 421 382 365 II. Mining and Quarrying 566 393 346 335 III. Food, Drink and Tobacco 771 744 691 681 IV. Coal and Petroleum Products 43 44 37 35 V. Chemicals and Allied Industries 450 435 421 437 VI. Metal Manufacture 627 556 469 439 VII. Mechanical Engineering 1,084 1,039 919 879 VIII. Instrument Engineering 161 164 148 146 IX. Electrical Engineering 828 799 730 741 X. Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering 197 183 175 156 XI. Vehicles 845 807 733 740 XII. Metal Goods not elsewhere specified.. 608 572 519 518 XIII. Textiles 707 581 480 430 XIV. Leather, Leather Goods and Fur 54 47 40 37 XV. Clothing and Footwear 483 429 364 356 XVI. Bricks, Pottery, Glass, Cement, etc. 331 302 258 250 XVII. Timber, Furniture, etc. 283 264 259 252 XVIII. Paper, Printing and Publishing 616 589 536 540 XIX. Other Manufacturing Industries 322 331 321 307 XX. Construction 1,604 1,222 1,269 1,247 XXI. Gas, Electricity and Water 424 369 343 346 XXII. Transport and Communication 1,598 1,545 1,453 1,473 XXIII. Distributive Trades 2,857 2,555 2,669 2,827 XXIV. Insurance, Banking, Finance and Business Services 808 963 1,087 1,207
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the average level of employment for each year since 1945.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 25 April 1980, c. 291]: Consistent estimates of the numbers of employees in employment are available only from 1948. Following is the information for Great Britain for each mid-year from 1948 and for December 1979, the latest date for which information is available:
426W
June 1948 19,994 June 1949 20,064 June 1950 20,318 June 1951 20,526 June 1952 20,489 June 1953 20,609 June 1954 20,961 June 1955 21,258 June 1956 21,517 June 1957 21,610 June 1958 21,450 June 1959(a) 21,565 June 1959(b) 20,983 June 1960 21,450 June 1961 21,789 June 1962 22,006 June 1963 22,060 June 1964 22,362 June 1965 22,619 June 1966 22,787 June 1967 22,347 June 1968 22,186
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 25 April 1980, c. 205]: Following is the information for Great Britain:
June 1969 22,148 June 1970 21,993 June 1971 21,648 June 1972 21,650 June 1973 22,182 June 1974 22,297 June 1975 22,213 June 1976 22,048 June 1977 22,126 June 1978 22,163 June 1979 22,311 December 1979 22,277 NOTES
1. Figures from 1948 to 1959(a) are based on the mid-year counts of national insurance cards and are not strictly comparable with those for 1959(b) and later years which are from the continuous series of employment estimates which takes account of discontinuities present in earlier data.
2. Figures for 1978 and 1979 are from the quarterly employment series and are provisional.
§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many unemployed workers aged 19 years and under there have been in each year since 1970; what are the individual figures for (a) London and (b) Merseyside; and if he will present these data as percentages of all workers aged 19 years and under.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 25 April 1980, c. 291]: The following table gives the information, where available, for January and July each year. The 427W July figures for recent years include considerable numbers of unemployed school leavers not present in the figures for January. Unemployment rates for age groups can be calculated only for the whole of Great Britain and are available
REGISTERED UNEMPLOYED UNDER 20 YEARS OF AGE Numbers and percentage rates. Great Britain Greater London Merseyside Special Development Area Number Per cent Number Number January 1970 … … … … 67,241 .. 5,842 .. July 1970 … … … … 72,024 .. 5,158 .. January 1971 … … … … 117,327 .. 5,870 .. July 1971 … … … … 110,649 .. 6,715 .. January 1972 … … … … 129,375 .. 8,256 9,955 July 1972 … … … … 125,200 .. 7,183 10,869 January 1973 … … … … 114,741 .. 7,010 11,955 July 1973 … … … … 70,064 .. 4,071 8,439 January 1974 … … … … .. .. .. .. July 1974 … … … … 81,591 .. 4,903 8,189 January 1975 … … … … .. .. .. .. July 1975 … … … … 232,840 9–8 15,564 18,643 January 1976 … … … … 224,545 10.7 19,876 17,004 July 1976 … … … … 390,246 17.3 32,448 27,389 January 1977 … … … … 252,328 11.7 23,356 18,791 July 1977 … … … … 456,201 19.3 38,376 31,462 January 1978 … … … … 274,822 12.4 23,299 21,690 July 1978 … … … … 441,028 18.5 33,175 32,217 January 1979 … … … … 240,492 10.9 18,740 20,524 July 1979 … … … … 389,880 16.6 28,680 27,420 January 1980 … … … … 240,425 10.9 18,524 17,927 Notes:
(1) 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 the summer of 1973.
(2) Some of the figures used in calculating the unemployment rates have been estimated; whilst the figures are presented to one decimal place they should not be regarded as implying precision to that degree. The rates for July are subject to a wide margin of error.
(3) The July 1975 rate is not comparable with those for later dates due to a change in school leaving regulations.
(4) The January 1980 figures are not strictly comparable with those for the earlier dates because of the introduction of fortnightly attendance and payment of benefit. This had the effect of raising the monthly unemployment figures for Great Britain by about 20,000 from October 1979 estimates of this effect by age are not available.