§ Mr. Cookasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will state the average number of unemployed during the financial year 1979–80.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe average of the monthly count of the numbers registered as unemployed in the United Kingdom during the period April 1979-March 1980 was 1,401,000.
The introduction of claiming and payment of benefit every two weeks rather than every week led to a spurious increase of about 20,000 in the unemployment figures from October 1979 onwards. As a result, the recorded average for the period April 1979-March 1980 is about 10,000 higher than it would otherwise have been.