§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his latest estimate of the number of people working short time for (a) three days and (b) four days a week.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe precise information is not available. Statistics of short-time working relate to the numbers of operatives in manufacturing industries who in a selected week in each month are on short-time working either for the whole or for a part of the week.
During the week ended on 15 November 1980, the latest date for which the information is available, there were 528,000 operatives in Great Britain on short-time working, of whom 502,000 were working for a part of the week.