§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of state for Employment what is the number on short-time working in (a) the West Midlands, (b) the Black Country areas of the West Midlands and (c) the Walsall travel-to-work areas; and what the figures were for June 1979.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison:Statistics of short-time working are available only for operatives in manufacturing industries. Figures are produced for Great Britain and the regions, but not for local areas.
During the week ended 13 June 1981 the provisional number of operatives in manufacturing industries who were stood off for the whole or part of the week in the West Midlands region was 70,000. The corresponding number during the week ended 9 June 1979 was 12,000.