§ Ms. Clare Shortasked the Paymaster General, from the 1984 and 1985 labour force surveys, if he will publish a table for each region of Great Britain and Greater London, by male-female, and claimant status, the numbers of people not in the labour force who had not looked for a job in the four-week reference period, but were available to start work within two weeks, and declared that they would take a job if one were available; and how many people not in the labour force who had not looked for a job in the four-week reference period, were available to start work within two weeks.
§ Mr. LeeThe available information is given in the table. It is not possible to provide a reliable analysis of the regional figures by claimant status.
531W
Men Women Total Spring 1984 Spring 1985 Spring 1984 Spring 1985 Spring 1984 Spring 1985 South East 106 93 240 213 346 306 (including Greater London) (48) (41) (108) (84) (156) (125) East Anglia 9 11 25 26 35 37 South West 29 21 63 48 93 68 West Midlands 54 39 85 87 139 126 East Midlands 26 34 60 57 86 92 Yorkshire and Humberside 33 37 77 74 109 111 North West 57 59 118 118 175 176 North 36 25 56 62 92 87 Wales 19 27 39 52 58 79 Scotland 29 33 89 89 118 122 Note:
The figures, which came from the labour force survey, are subject to sampling errors.
In some cases the figures may appear not to add because of rounding.
§ Mr. Murphyasked the Paymaster General what is the current percentage of employment in the Welwyn, Hatfield constituency; and what are the comparable figures for (a) Hertfordshire and (b) the country as a whole.
§ Mr. LeeCurrent figures are not available. The latest comparable information comes from the 1981 census of population and is shown in the following table:
Persons in Employment as a percentage of all those aged 16 and over Per cent. Welwyn, Hatfield parliamentary constituency 62.2 Hertfordshire 61.1 Great Britain 55.0
§ Ms. Clare Shortasked the Paymaster General if he will publish figures for each year since 1957 of (a) the number of employees in employment, (b) the number self-employed, (c) the unemployment rate and (d) the number available for work.
§ Mr. LeeFor the period June 1959 to March 1986, the latest estimates of employees in employment, the self-employed and the size of the working population in Great Britain are to be found on page 4 of historical supplement No. 1 to the February 1987 Employment Gazette. A copy is in the Library.
Employment estimates for June and September 1986 (the latest date for which figures are available) are as follows: June September Employees in employment 21,074,000 21,169,000 Self-employed 2,665,000 2,696,000 Working population 27,164,000 27,386,000 Comparable figures are not available for 1957 and 1958.
The following table gives unemployment rates for Great Britain for June of each year from 1957 expressed as a percentage of the working population. Figures for years from 1957 to 1971 relate to unemployed registrants, and for 1971 to date to unemployed claimants. Comparisons over such a long period are difficult to make because of changes in the method of collection and compilation of the data.
532W
Unemployed registrants Unemployment Percentage Rate 1957 1.0 1958 1.6 1959 1.6 1960 1.2 1961 1.1 1962 1.5 1963 1.9 1964 1.3 1965 1.1 1966 1.0 1967 1.9 1968 2.0 1969 1.9 1970 2.1 1971 2.8 Unemployed claimants 1971 2.7 1972 3.0 1973 2.1 1974 2.0 1975 3.2 1976 4.8 1977 5.1 1978 5.0 1979 4.5 1980 5.5 1981 8.8 1982 10.2 1983 11.1 1984 11.0 1985 11.4 1986 11.5