HC Deb 26 January 1983 vol 35 c445W
Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop

asked the Secretary of State for Employment why the computers that can now produce the mumber of unemployed persons by group and post code addresses are incapable of relating this information to the number of employed persons in the same grouping so as to produce a percentage unemployment figure.

Mr. Gummer

The Department of Employment does not publish unemployment rates for areas which are not self-contained travel-to-work areas. The numbers of unemployed people living in smaller areas are available, and it is of course technically possible to produce percentage rates of unemployment for any such area, but such rates do not take account of jobs accessible outside the area nor of people commuting in from elsewhere to take local jobs. They cannot therefore measure the area's need for jobs.

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