§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the percentage of the working population unemployed as an average for each year since 1960 up to the latest year for which figures are available ; and what was the size of the working population in each year of the same period.
§ Mr. Jim LesterIt is my Department's normal practice to calculate unemployment rates as a percentage of the latest available mid-year estimate of employees—employed and unemployed—which differs from the working population in that it excludes self-employed people and members of Her Majesty's Forces.
The following table gives average percentage rates of unemployment on this basis for each year from 1960 to 1979.
1960 1.5 1961 1.4 1962 1.9 1963 2.3 1964 1.6 1965 1.4 1966 1.4 1967 2.2 1968 2.4 1969 2.3 1970 2.5 1971 3.4 1972 3.7 1973 2.6 1974 2.6 1975 4.1 1976* 5.6 1977 6.0 1978 6.0 1979 5.6 *Average of eleven months. The following table gives figures for employees—employed and unemployed—for Great Britain at each mid-year from 1960 to 1979.
614W
1960 22,333 1961 22,627 1962 22,944 1963 23,063 1964 23,209 1965 23,417 1966 23,554 1967 23,293 1968 23,152 1969 23,083 1970 22,928 1971 22,336 1972 22,417 1973 22,728 1974 22,813 1975 23,041 1976 23,326 1977 23,516 1978 23,544 1979 23,593
§ Mr. Canavanasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the total number of unemployed people in the United Kingdom ; and how many of them are under 25 years of age.
§ Mr. Jim LesterAt 10 April, the latest date for which the quarterly age analysis is available, the number of people registered as unemployed in the United Kingdom was 1,522,927, of whom 551,105 were under 25 years of age.