HC Deb 08 December 1980 vol 995 cc232-3W
Mr. Stallard

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the overall increase in average earnings since 1948.

Mr. Jim Lester

The available information is as follows:

strictly comparable with those for earlier years because of the introduction of fortnightly attendance and payment of benefit. Estimates of this effect are not available for local areas, but for the country as a whole the monthly unemployment figures from October 1979 are about 20,000 or 1½ per cent. higher than under weekly attendance.

Mr. Nicholas Winterton

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his Department's estimate of the number of people out of work in the latest unemployment figures who have been unemployed for one full calendar year; and what is his Department's estimate of the number of people contained in this figure who generally could be described as being in the process of changing jobs.

Mr. Jim Lester

At 9 October, the latest date for which an analysis by duration is available, there were 401,114 people in the United Kingdom who had been registered as unemployed for over 52 weeks.

Whilst some of these people may be expected to obtain jobs in due course, they would not generally be thought of as being in the process of changing jobs. This would apply much more to the unemployed of short duration. For example, on 9 October there were 176,394 people who had been unemployed for up to 2 weeks and 341,116 unemployed for up to 4 weeks. A substantial proportion of these people could be expected to obtain jobs quickly. In all some 265,000 people currently leave the unemploymnent register every month, mostly for jobs or training. However, there would also be a significant proportion who would remain unemployed for a longer period.