§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons are presently registered as unemployed in the Crawley constituency; and what were the annual figures for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkThe following table gives, for the area covered by the Crawley and Gatwick jobcentres, which closely corresponds to the Crawley constituency, the numbers of registered unemployed in January each year from 1979 to 1982 and the numbers of unemployed claimants in January 1983 and January 1984.
541W
Year Number January each year Registered unemployed 1979 1,160 1980 1,066 1981 2,404 1982 3,698 Unemployed claimants 1983 3,758 1984 3,083 A comparison between 1983 and 1984 is affected by the provisions announced in the 1983 Budget which meant that some men aged 60 and over no longer have to sign on at an unemployment benefit office. The effect nationally was about 0.5 per cent.; estimates of the effect at local level are not available.