§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for Employment what research is currently being done to establish what are the true figures on unemployment and jobs vacant and to establish an estimate of jobs in the black economy.
§ Mr. Jim LesterI am satisfied that the present methods of counting the registered unemployed and notified vacancies provide adequate estimates of their totals, trends 147W and a range of characteristics. Additional information on characteristics and also on the unemployed who do not register is available from household and other surveys. From a survey of firms, it has been estimated that notified vacancies account for about one-third of the total. In the nature of things, it is not practicable to make a satisfactory estimate of the number of people engaged in the black economy.
A full review of all these matters was published in the May 1980 issue of Employment Gazette, which is in the House of Commons Library.