HC Deb 23 November 1984 vol 68 cc295-9W
Mrs. Beckett

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will provide information on the 50 geographical regions in Great Britain with the highest unemployment rates (a) on a constituency basis and (b) on the regional and sub-regional basis used in the "New Earnings Survey" in April, broken down between (i) men aged 18 years or over, (ii) women aged 18 years or over and (iii) workers aged under 18 years and show the relevant unemployment rates.

Mr. Alan Clark

The information is not available on the geographical basis requested. Unemployment rates are calculated for travel-to-work areas, counties and regions; unemployment rates by age are available only at the national level.

Mr. Forman

asked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) how many people at the latest available date were registered as unemployed in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) Northern Ireland; what percentage of the total population available for work in those parts of the country the figures represented; and what were the comparable figures for 1979, 1981 and 1983;

(2) how many people at the latest available date were registered as unemployed in (a) Liverpool, (b) Manchester, (c) Newcastle, (d) Leeds, (e) Sheffield and (f) Plymouth; what percentage of the total population available for work in those cities the figures represented; and what were the comparable figures for 1979, 1981 and 1983.

Mr. Alan Clark

The information is available in the House of Commons Library. However, the figures for all the years requested are not directly comparable particularly because of the change from the registrant-based to claimant-based unemployment count in October 1982.

Mr. Forman

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many full-time male jobs in manufacturing have been lost in the United Kingdom since 1981; and how many part-time female jobs in all sectors have been created over the same period.

Mr. Alan Clark

Information about job gains and job losses is not available from the Department's statistics, but an indication of the net changes can be seen by comparing levels of employees in employment at different dates.

Other than at census of employment dates, a breakdown between full-time and part-time employees is not available for males and is available for females only for Great Britain. Between June 1981 and June 1984 the estimated number of males employed in manufacturing industries in Great Britain decreased by 421,000. Over the same period the estimated number of part-time female employees in employment in all industries in Great Britain increased by 360,000.

Mr. Forman

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people at the latest available date have been registered as unemployed (a) for more than three years, (b) for more than two years and (c) for more than one year.

Mr. Alan Clark

The information on unemployed claimants is available in the House of Commons Library.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many and what percentage, for each year since 1979, of (a) able-bodied people and (b) registered disabled people have been unemployed nationally and in the Manchester, Sheffield, London, Newcastle, Birmingham, Stoke on Trent, Leeds and Wakefield travel-to-work areas for (i) over three months, (ii) over six months, (iii) over one year, (iv) over 18 months and (v) over two years; and what these figures are for disabled people registered as (i) section 1 and (ii) section 2 disabled.

Mr. Alan Clark

[pursuant to his reply, 21 November 1984, c. 195]: Separate unemployment figures for able-bodied and disabled people are not available.

Comprehensive figures for registered disabled people have not been available since the introduction of voluntary registration of unemployed people at jobcentres and careers offices in October 1982. Analysis of total unemployment by duration for the old travel-to-work areas are available in the House of Commons Library, although direct comparisons back to 1979 are not possible mainly because of the change in the basis of the unemployment count in October 1982.

Following is the available information on numbers of registered disabled people registered as unemployed between 1979 and 1982 for Great Britain, and for October 1982 only for the old travel-to-work areas.

Registered disabled people registered as unemployed
Duration of unemployment Total Percentage of all duration groups Section 1 Percentage of all duration groups Section 2 Percentage of all duration groups
Great Britain—July 1979
Over 3 months 49,976 82.8 42,210 81.2 7,766 92.1
Over 6 months 43,995 72.9 36,713 70.6 7,282 86.4
Over 1 year 35,529 58.9 29,003 55.8 6,526 77.4
Over 18 months 29,237 48.5 23,379 45.0 5,858 69.5
Over 2 years 24,856 41.2 19,541 37.6 5,315 63.1
Great Britain—October 1980
Over 3 months 51,567 79.4 44,560 77.7 7,007 91.4
Over 6 months 43,086 66.3 36,642 63.9 6,444 84.1
Over 1 year 32,548 50.1 26,944 47.0 5,604 73.1
Over 18 months 26,239 40.4 21,285 37.1 4,954 64.6
Over 2 years 22,318 34.4 17,833 31.1 4,485 58.5
Great Britain—October 1981
Over 3 months 65,718 85.3 58,406 84.2 7,312 94.2
Over 6 months 56,459 73.3 49,573 71.5 6,886 88.7
Over 1 year 41,628 54.1 35,554 51.3 6,074 78.2
Over 18 months 30,775 40.0 25,555 36.9 5,220 67.2
Over 2 years 24,629 32.0 20,078 29.0 4,551 58.6
Great Britain—October 1982
Over 3 months 66,077 86.7 59,057 85.9 7,020 93.6
Over 6 months 58,468 76.7 51,862 75.4 6,606 88.1
Over 1 year 46,372 60.8 40,462 58.8 5,910 78.8
Over 18 months 36,635 48.0 31,349 45.5 5,286 70.5
Over 2 years 28,373 37.2 23,681 34.4 4,692 62.6
Sheffield travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 390 87.1 356 86.7 34 89.4
Over 6 months 344 76.8 314 76.5 30 78.9
Over 1 year 269 60.1 245 59.7 24 63.1
Over 18 months 205 45.8 185 45.1 20 52.6
Over 2 years 162 36.2 146 35.6 16 42.1
Manchester travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 1,925 77.6 1,710 76.9 215 84.6
Over 6 months 1,718 69.3 1,515 68.1 203 79.9
Over 1 year 1,306 52.7 1,130 50.8 176 69.3
Over 18 months 1,086 43.8 923 41.5 163 64.2
Over 2 years 909 36.7 767 34.5 142 55.9
London travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 6,325 87.0 5,641 86.3 684 94.8
Over 6 months 5,548 76.3 4,897 74.9 651 90.2
Over 1 year 4,260 58.6 3,681 56.3 579 80.2
Over 18 months 3,270 45.0 2,760 42.2 510 70.6
Over 2 years 2,500 34.4 2,055 31.4 445 61.6
Newcastle upon Tyne travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 735 91.6 647 91.5 88 93.5
Over 6 months 661 82.4 577 81.6 84 89.3
Over 1 year 567 70.7 493 69.7 74 78.7
Over 18 months 460 57.4 397 56.1 63 67.0
Over 2 years 366 45.7 310 43.8 56 59.6
Birmingham travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 2,027 89.4 1,855 88.8 172 95.5
Over 6 months 1,867 82.4 1,698 81.3 169 93.8
Over 1 year 1,552 68.5 1,412 67.6 140 77.7
Over 18 months 1,169 51.6 1,063 50.9 106 58.8
Over 2 years 938 41.4 840 40.2 98 54.4
Stoke-on-Trent travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 680 85.8 561 84.4 119 92.9
Over 6 months 578 72.9 472 71.0 106 82.8
Over 1 year 455 57.4 355 53.4 100 78.1
Over 18 months 326 41.1 244 36.7 82 64.0
Over 2 years 235 29.6 168 25.3 67 52.3
Leeds travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 647 80.6 574 79.2 73 93.5
Over 6 months 509 63.4 450 62.1 59 75.6
Over 1 year 337 42.0 293 40.4 44 56.4

Duration of unemployment Total Percentage of all duration groups Section 1 Percentage of all duration groups Section 2 Percentage of all duration groups
Over 18 months 272 33.9 234 32.3 38 48.7
Over 2 years 212 26.4 178 24.6 34 43.6
Wakefield travel-to-work area—October 1982
Over 3 months 228 87.0 180 86.1 48 90.5
Over 6 months 194 74.0 148 70.8 46 86.7
Over 1 year 159 60.6 114 54.5 45 84.8
Over 18 months 139 53.0 98 46.8 41 77.3
Over 2 years 108 41.2 72 34.4 36 67.9
* MSC local and regional offices do not keep statistics of disabled people for longer than three years.

Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what, for each year since 1979, is (a) the unemployment rate, (b) the number of registered disabled people and (c) the unemployment rate for registered disabled people, nationally and for the Manchester, Sheffield, London, Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds and Wakefield travel-to-work areas; and what are these figures for disabled people registered (i) section 1, and (ii) section 2 disabled.

Mr. Alan Clark

[pursuant to his reply, 21 November 1984, column 795]: Overall unemployment rates for travel-to-work areas are available in the House of Commons Library. Figures for the new travel-to-work areas only go back to June 1983 and direct comparisons for the old travel-to-work areas back to 1979 are not possible, mainly because of the change in the basis of the unemployment count in October 1982. Unemployment rates for registered disabled people are not available.

Following is the available information on numbers of registered disabled people in the old travel-to-work areas.

Numbers of registered disabled people: April
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984
Great Britain 482,006 470,588 460,178 447,259 433,177 420,475
Manchester * * * 13,369 12,820 12,000
Sheffield * * * 4,693 4,707 4,869
London * * * 52,615 50,373 46,506
Stoke-on-Trent * * * 5,816 4,811 4,219
Newcastle-upon-Tyne * * * 4,557 4,586 4,246
Birmingham * * * 11,513 10,980 10,404
Leeds * * * 5,723 5,555 5,339
Wakefield * * * 1,757 1,700 1,644
* Figures by travel-to-work areas are not available prior to October 1982.