HC Deb 27 March 1987 vol 113 cc294-5W
Ms. Clare Short

asked the Paymaster General if he will publish a table for each region in Great Britain and Greater London, showing the total numbers of people who, when interviewed for each of the last three labour force surveys, said that they would like a job if one were available, and the numbers of those in that category who (a) had not looked for work in the four weeks reference period and were not available to start work within two weeks and (b) had looked for work in the four-week reference period but were not available to start work within two weeks.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke

The figures supplied in the first three columns of the tables refer to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) figures for the number of people who said they would like a job for whatever reason. The remaining columns extract the figures requested for those people who were not available for work. Any analysis should take account of the fact that the figures in the first three columns include a further substantial number of people who said they were available for work but had not looked for work in the last four weeks.

As I made clear in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Mr. Fallon) on 17 March at column 445, the results of the LFS taken as a whole show that, according to internationall:y accepted definitions laid down by the ILO, fewer than 3 million people were unemployed in spring 1986, as in spring 1985.

Mr. McLoughlin

asked the Paymaster General if he will give the official unemployment figures for May 1970, January 1974, March 1979, June 1983 and the latest available date.

Mr. Lee

The following information is in the Library. The table gives estimates of seasonally adjusted unemployment (excluding school leavers) consistent with the current monthly count. These statistics are available only from January 1971.

Unemployment (excluding school leavers) in the United Kingdom adjusted for discontinuities and seasonality (thousands)
Date
January 1971 570.3
January 1974 493.6
March 1979 1,183.8
June 1983 2,886.8
February 1987 13,073.9
1 February figure is provisional and subject to revision.