§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many young people under the age of 18 years are currently registered as unemployed in the Wolverhampton area; how this compares with the numbers for the same period in 1976, 1977, 1978 and 1979; and what percentage of the total unemployed this represents in each case.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 1 August 1980, c. 872]: Following is the information for July each year for the Wolverhampton employment office area.
Unemployed aged under 18 years Percentage of total unemployed July 1976 2,560 27.6 July 1977 2,598 30.1 July 1978 2,817 31.2 July 1979 2,712 29.9 July 1980* 3,355 27.2 * Provisional. The Government and the Manpower Services Commission have undertaken that all 1980 school leavers who remain unemployed and all young people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more will be offered places on the youth opportunities programme by the end of March 1981.