HC Deb 01 February 1988 vol 126 c464W
Mr. Leighton

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment pursuant to his answer of 19 January,Official Report, at column 603, if he will provide his best estimate of the number of unemployed claimants in the London boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Newham in July 1981.

Mr. Lee

The information requested is not available. Figures of unemployed claimants at local level are available only from August 1982. Figures for London boroughs are compiled using the ward-based system and are available only from June 1983.

Mr. Strang

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what were the numbers of registered unemployed in the United Kingdom in March, June, September and December for each of the last 10 years.

Mr. Lee

The following information is in the Library. The table shows the number of unemployed claimants in the United Kingdom (seasonally adjusted and excluding school leavers) for each of the months requested for the last 10 years. The data given are consistent over the time period requested.

Unemployed claimants, seasonally adjusted United Kingdom
thousands
March June September December
1977 1,207.6 1,250.6 1,292.6 1,282.7
1978 1,247.5 1,235.1 1,217.4 1,166.6
1979 1,183.8 1,131.8 1,110.4 1,121.7
1980 1,210.2 1,359.1 1,605.8 1,898.4
1981 2,107.0 2,275.4 2,397.7 2,479.1
1982 2,532.3 2,605.8 2,685.0 2,771.5
1983 2,824.7 2,884.2 2,893.8 2,919.5
1984 2,966.9 2,978.6 3,037.7 3,069.9
1985 3,096.0 3,109.3 3,121.2 3,143.0
1986 3,206.8 3,212.5 3,183.2 3,119.4
1987 3,039.7 2,925.2 2,773.3 2,614.0