§ Mr. Litherlandasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current ratio of the number of those unemployed in Manchester to the number of registered job vacancies; and what was the corresponding ratio in May 1979.
§ Mr. Alison[pursuant to his reply, 30 April 1982, c. 388]: At April 1982 the provisional number of people registered as unemployed in the Manchester travel-to-work area was 94,082 compared with 36,634 at May 1979. The figures include school leavers and are not seasonally adjusted.
The numbers of notified vacancies remaining unfilled in the area at April 1982 were 2,377 at employment offices and 69 at careers offices. The corresponding figures at May 1979 were 6,247 and 1,072. Vacancies notified to employment offices are estimated to be about one-third of all vacancies in the country as a whole. Because of this and of possible duplication between the separate figures for employment offices and careers offices, the two series cannot be added to provide satisfactory totals from which the ratios required could be calculated.