§ 18. Mr. Chapmanasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he is satisfied with the work being undertaken by jobcentres with particular reference to their cost effectiveness and placing of people in new jobs as compared with the old employment exchanges.
§ Mr. Jim LesterI am generally satisfied with the work being undertaken by jobcentres. Jobcentres are more cost effective than the old employment exchanges, they are helping to place people in employment more quickly and the atmosphere they engender for job seekers has greatly improved. The increased volume of business handled by jobcentres means that staff productivity is higher and cost per placing lower than in other offices. Evaluation has also shown that, compared with the offices they replace,326W jobcentres handle more vacancies, fill more of the vacancies notified to them and place more job seekers into employment.
§ Mr. Lathamasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will make a statement on the future role of jobcentres.
§ 30. Mr. Kenneth Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Employment what instructions he has given to the Manpower Services Commission in respect of the opening of new jobcentres.
§ Mr. Jim LesterI have informed the Manpower Services Commission that I support its jobcentre programme and its plans to complete it. However, the future pace of this programme will be affected by the resources available to the commission.
§ 43. Mr. McQuarrieasked the Secretary of State for Employment what proposals he has for closing the jobcentres and reverting to the practice that all job vacancies are dealt with by local employment offices.
§ Mr. Jim LesterUntil 1972 vacancies notified to the public employment service were handled in offices which also dealt with the payment of unemployment benefit. I have no proposals for reverting to that system, or for a general policy of closing jobcentres. Since modernisation, the public employment service has performed more efficiently. In particular, jobcentres, which are replacing the old style employment offices, handle more vacancies, fill more of the vacancies notified to them, place more jobseekers into employment and do so at a lower unit cost than the offices they are replacing. As a result, I have informed the Manpower Services Commission that I support its jobcentre programme and its plans to complete it. However, the future pace of the MSC's jobcentre programme will be determined in the light of resources available to the commission. I have also asked the MSC to develop the programme of modernising the employment service in the most cost-effective way and to avoid extravagance particularly in relation to the siting of jobcentres.