§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will provide figures showing the number of non-claimants of unemployment benefit, the 430W number of severely disabled persons and the number of unemployed sick, as defined by international recommendations for counting the unemployed, who were not included in the latest unemployment count available.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonNon-claimants to unemployment benefit who register at employment and careers offices are included only if they are seeking full-time work; those seeking part-time work are excluded and numbered 21,000 at 12 February. At 12 March there were 12,000 disabled people not included in the unemployment count who were registered as unemployed but who were unlikely to obtain employment except under sheltered conditions. Figures for unemployed people who are not on the register while receiving sickness benefit are not available, but it is estimated that their number could add less than 1 per cent. to the unemployment total.
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many (a) construction workers and (b) building material workers were unemployed at the latest convenient date; what percentage of the total unemployed this represents; and what were the comparable figures for May 1979.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe following table gives the numbers of people registered as unemployed at May 1979 and February 1981 in the United Kingdom who last worked in the industries shown and expresses these as percentages of all those registered as unemployed. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.
Standard Industrial Classification 1968 May 1979 February 1981 (latest available) Construction (Order XX) 174,656 370,894 As a percentage of all unemployed 13.4 15.1 Bricks, pottery, glass, cement etc. (Order XVI) 11,473 26,772 As a percentage of all unemployed 0.9 1.1
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current figure for long-term unemployment in (a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands; and what were the comparable figures in May 1979 and January 1980.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonDuration analyses of the numbers registered as unemployed are made quarterly in January, April, July and October. The following table gives the numbers registered as unemployed for over 52 weeks at April 1979, January 1980 and January 1981 in the areas specified. The figures are not seasonally adjusted.
April 1979 January 1980 January 1981 Wolverhampton employment office area 1,944 2,074 2,923 West Midlands 34,154 33,685 48,766
§ Mr. Brocklebank-Fowlerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the number of registered unemployed at King's Lynn, Fakenham, Hunstanton and Swaffham offices for April each year from 1970 to 1981, inclusive.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe following table gives the number of people registered as unemployed in the employment office areas at the dates specified: 431W
Kings Lynn Fakenham Hunstanton Swaffham April each year 1970 879 186 242 164 1971* 1,199 277 385 290 1972* 1,384 329 376 313 1973 801 226 250 238 1974 576 177 179 202 1975 1,143 293 451 437 1976 1,329 407 602 510 1977 1,866 457 702 616 1978 1,951 421 686 548 1979 1,886 426 577 463 1980 1,871 442 565 430 1981 3,430 680 794 705 * The figures for 1971 and 1972 include small numbers of adult students not present in the figures for other dates.