§ Mr. Leightonasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many of the current unemployed have never held a job (a) in the London borough of Newham and (b) in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkInformation on claimants who have been unemployed since leaving full-time education, by jobcentre area and for the United Kingdom, is available in the Library.
§ Mr. Thurnhamasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will amend the formula whereby the 33W figures for employed and unemployed are calculated monthly, by including in the numerator and the denominator those categorised as self-employed.
§ Mr. Alan ClarkI do not propose to change the formula as suggested. Since people who have been self-employed in the tax year relevant to a claim are not entitled to unemployment benefits, the denominator would have a wider coverage than the numerator in using the figures of claimant unemployed for calculating unemployment rates. Moreover, figures on the self-employed are only infrequently available at local level from population censuses.
Average gross weekly earnings (£) of full-time employees in Great Britain whose pay was unaffected by absence Males Females Age 1979 1984 per cent.increase 1979 1984 per cent.increase Under 18 40.3 63.3 57.1 36.6 58.6 60.1 18–20 61.9 101.0 63.2 48.7 82.3 69.0 21 & over 101.4 181.6 79.1 65.3 121.2 85.6 The information on unemployment by sex for the under 18, 18 to 19 and 20 or over age groups is available in the Library. However, direct comparison of the figures for 1979 and 1984 in the form of a percentage increase is not possible because of the change in the basis of the unemployment count in October 1982.