Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Employment what estimate he has made of the number of young people who are likely to be seeking work between 1980 and 1984; to what extent the number of persons of working age is expected to increase over the period; and whether he has made any plans to deal with the problem.
§ Mr. Jim LesterMy Department estimates that the number of young people aged 16 to 19 in the labour force will increase from 2.42 million in 1980 to 2.45 million in 1981 and to 2.46 million in 1982 and 1983; thereafter numbers will decline to 2.42 million on 1984.
The number of people in the population who are aged between 16 and State pension ages will also increase from 32.53 million in 1980 to 33.29 million in 1984.
These projections are subject to some uncertainty, for example, reflecting attitudes to remaining in education and to retirement.
The Government's special employment and training measures will continue to help the unemployed. I announced on 21 November the increased scale of these measures for 1981–82.