§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) how many factory closures have been reported since May 1979; and how many employees have been involved in (a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands.
(2) how many redundancies have been reported since May 1979 in (a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands; and how many are pending.
§ Mr. Waddington[pursuant to his reply, 8 November 1982, c. 77]: There are no comprehensive statistics of closures or redundancies. The available information on closures and redundancies involving 10 or more employees reported to the Manpower Services Commission as due to occur in the requested areas between May 1979 and September 1982 are given in the following table:
130W
Wolverhampton employment office area West Midlands region Standard Industrial Classification, 1968 Number unemployed As a percentage of total unemployed Number unemployed As a percentage of total unemployed Agriculture, forestry, fishing 66 0.4 3,453 1.0 Mining and quarrying 11 0.1 2,918 0.8 Food, drink and tobacco 200 1.1 7,095 2.1 Coal and petroleum products 6 - 155 - Chemicals and allied industries 127 0.7 2,340 0.7 Metal manufacture 815 4.6 15,048 4.4 Mechanical engineering 440 2.5 14,122 4.1 Instrument engineering 4 — 651 0.2 Electrical engineering 351 2.0 8,968 2.6 Shipbuilding and marine engineering 6 — 166 — Vehicles 362 2.0 26,107 7.6 Metal goods not elsewhere specified 2,918 16.4 38,771 11.3 Textiles 144 0.8 3,192 0.9 Leather, leather goods and fur 2 — 674 0.2 Clothing and footwear 191 1.1 2,893 0.8 Bricks, pottery, glass, cement, etc. 39 0.2 9,295 2.7 Timber, furniture, etc. 134 0.8 2,667 0.8 Paper, printing and publishing 103 0.6 2,755 0.8 Other manufacturing industries 487 2.7 6,675 1.9 Construction 1,561 8.8 34,151 9.9 Gas, electricity and water 34 0.2 1,376 0.4 Transport and communication 408 2.3 9,527 2.8 Distributive trades 1,256 7.1 29,234 8.5 Insurance, banking, finance and business services 201 1.1 5,516 1.6 Professional and scientific services 330 1.9 9,933 2.9 Miscellaneous services 1,299 7.3 27,859 8.1 Public administration and defence 452 2.5 10,205 3.0 Not classified by industry (including school leavers) 5,841 32.8 67,705 19.7 TOTAL 17,788 100.0 343,451 100.0
Closures and redundancies reported as due to occur, May 1979 to September 1982* Wolverhampton TTWA West Midlands region Factory Closures: Number of Establishments 35 640 Number of Redundancies involved 1,894 36,142 Total redundancies 12,144 169,077 Redundancies pending 1,042 9,895 * These include provisional figures for September.