§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people have been made redundant in (a) the West Midlands, (b) the Black Country areas of the West Midlands and (c) the Walsall travel-to-work area during the course of 1981 or which figures are available; and what are the comparative figures for 1978, 1979 and 1980.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThere are no comprehensive statistics of redundancies. The available information on redundancies, involving 10 or more employees, reported to the Manpower Services Commission as due to occur is as follows:
Redundancies reported as due to occur West Midlands Black Country(*) Walsall travel-to-work area 1978 10,006 †2,615 †297 1979 19,320 †7,787 †1,955 1980 69,436 16,236 2,998 1981 Jan.-Oct. ‡ ** 47,523 14,367 3,466 Notes * Wolverhampon, Dudley and Sandwell, and Walsall travel-to-work areas. † Prior to January 1980 the local figures relate to redundancies notified within the month concerned rather than redundancies taking place in the month. ‡ Including provisional figures for September and October 1981. ** 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 redundancies actually taking place.
§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many companies have closed down in the West Midlands during 1980 and 1981; and what are the names and locations of the companies and the number of employees made redundant in each closure.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThere are no comprehensive statistics of closures. The available information on closures, involving redundancies of 10 or more employees, reported to the manpower Services Commission as due to occur is given in the following table.
As stated in my reply of 19 October 1981—[Vol. 10, c. 9]—to a similar question from the hon. Member, since the information is often provided in confidence the identity of the firms cannot be disclosed.
485W
Closures reported as due to occur: West Midlands Number of establishments Number of employees involved 1980 187 10,864 1981 (Jan.-Oct.)* 217 9,574 * Including provisional figures for September and October 1981.
§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many registered unemployed there are in the West Midlands whose trade is in building, construction and ancillary work; and how many of these have been unemployed for longer than (a) three months, (b) six months and (c) 12 months.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonAt 13 August, the latest date for which the information is available, there were 33,130 people registered as unemployed in the West Midlands region who last worked in the construction industry. There is no cross-analysis made by both industry and duration of unemployment.