§ Mr. Gareth WardellTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment his Department has made of the role of the immobility of labour in perpetuating high levels of unemployment in many areas of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. LeeMy Department has sponsored research into the links between unemployment, real wages and mobility 227W of labour between regions. This research has been published. References are: Pissarides and Wadsworth: "Unemployment and the inter-regional mobility of labour" (CLE Discussion Paper No. 296); Jackman and Roper: "Structural Unemployment" (Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, February 1987).
Unemployment has fallen by three quarters of a million since the last general election. It is falling in all regions of the country and has fallen furthest over the last year in the west midlands, the north west and Wales.