§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Employment assuming a standard five-day working week, how many working days have been lost due to the increased level of unemployment since May 1979 to the latest date.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonA close estimate of working days lost through unemployment cannot be made, and various assumptions are necessary.
It is assumed that changes in the numbers of unemployed occur evenly over each month between the dates of the unemployment count, and that all those who registered would otherwise have been at work during the whole period of their registration. On this basis, the number of working days lost between the dates of the counts in May 1979 and December 1980 would be about 130 million.
However, it is not possible to make satisfactory estimates in respect of the short periods of unemployment for those who joined and left the register between successive employment count dates, and such registrants have not been taken into account in the above figure.