HC Deb 31 July 1981 vol 9 cc700-1W
Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing redundancies for the United Kingdom for each minimum list heading for manufacturing industry from May 1979 to date.

Mr. Peter Morrison

There are no comprehensive statistics of redundancies. The full information requested is not available except at disproportionate cost. The following table gives the available information relating to redundancies, involving 10 or more employees, reported to the Manpower Services Commission as due to occur in each order of the Standard Industrial Classification in manufacturing industry in Great Britain for the peroid May 1979 to June 1981. More detailed information by minimum list headings is held in the House of Commons Library.

Redundancies Reported as Due to Occur: May 1979—June 1981

*Great Britain

Industry SIC Order Number
Food, Drink and Tobacco III 46,294
Coal and Petroleum Products IV 1,651
Chemicals and Allied Industries V 25,068
Metal Manufacture VI 100,494
Mechanical Engineering VII 98,672
Instrument Engineering VIII 9,484
Electrical Engineering IX 66,761
Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering X 16,414
Vehicles XI 75,281

Industry SIC Order Number
Metal Goods Not Elsewhere Specified XII 52,814
Textiles XIII 78,027
Leather, Leather Goods and Fur XIV 4,166
Clothing and Footwear XV 44,506
Bricks, Pottery, Glass, Cement etc. XVI 26,939
Timber, Furniture, etc. XVII 16,992
Paper, Printing and Publishing XVIII 34,174
Other Manufacturing Industries XIX 32,743
ALL MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES 730,480
* Including provisional figures for May and June 1981.

Note: Figures for February 1981 or later are not fully comparable with those for January 1981 and earlier, because of improvements in data collection designed to secure a better coverage of reported redundancies which are actually expected to take place.

Mr. Austin Mitchell

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish a table in the Official Report showing the increase in unemployment since May 1979, the fall in employment, the corresponding figures for manufacturing industry, and the total numbers employed in manufacturing plants which have been closed down over this period.

Mr. Peter Morrison

The available information for the United Kingdom is given in the following tables.

Table 1 gives the unemployment figures at May 1979 and May 1981, the latest date for which an industrial analysis is available.

Table 2 givers the employment figures at June 1979 and March 1981, the latest date for which the quarterly total estimates are available.

Manufacturing industries
Average earnings: Great Britain 1970= 100 Labour costs per unit of output: 1970 =100 United Kingdom National insurance contributions as a percentage of total labour costs Great Britain
1975 209.2 198.4 6.5
1976 243.6 224.2
1977 269.2 250.0
1978 308.0 286.5 8.5
1979 356.0 328.0 †9.1
1980 419.5 * †9.1
1981 (First quarter) 452.7
Notes
* On the basis of estimated changes in average earnings and other labour costs, and in the index of manufacturing production, labour costs per unit of output increased by just over 24 per cent, between 1979 and 1980. This estimate is, however, subject to revision in the light of information from the Census of Production for 1980.
† Precise figures are only available for those years covered by the survey of labour costs. Estimates are not readily available for 1976 and 1977 but have been prepared for 1979 and 1980 on a provisional basis.

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