§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimate of the number of working days lost in the United Kingdom in the past year as a result of unemployment.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonAn estimate would require several assumptions—for example, about the nature and timing of flows on and off the register of unemployed; the length of working weeks which would otherwise have been worked; holidays; other causes of lost time, such as sickness, which might have come into effect; individual decisions about job-seeking which might otherwise have been made. The range of possible alternative figures implied would call into question the value of any figures that might be arrived at.