HC Deb 10 April 1989 vol 150 cc368-9W
Mr. Redmond

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the number of people employed in(a) the mining industry; (b) the steel industry and (c) on the railways for the Yorkshire and Humberside region, what was the comparable figure five years and 10 years ago; and if he will break down the answer by sex.

Mr. Lee

The available information for the mining industry and railways for the dates specified is given in the following table. The figures are subject to considerable potential estimation error as the monthly and quarterly employment surveys carried out between censuses of employment are based on samples which are not large enough to provide reliable estimates at regional level for individual industries. Comparable regional estimates of employment in the steel industry are available only from the censuses of employment held in September 1981 and September 1984, and these are included in the table.

Female employees in employment in Yorkshire and Humberside region
Thousand
Full-time Part-time
September each year Number Percentage change since previous September Number Percentage change since previous September
1979 457 -1 356 4
1980 441 -4 353 -1
1981 418 -5 347 -2
1982 404 -3 349 1
1983 403 0 352 1
1984 408 1 361 3
Full-time Part-time
September each year Number Percentage change since previous September Number Percentage change since previous September
1985 411 1 373 3
1986 410 0 387 4
1987 427 4 391 1
1988 452 6 395 1

Mr. Andrew F. Bennett

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people have been out of work for over(a) 12 months, (b) two years and (c) three years for the most recent date for which figures are available; and what are the comparable figures for similar dates in 1984 and 1979.

Mr. Lee

Direct comparisons of unemployment by duration since 1979 are not possible because of changes in the coverage of the count. The following is the available information, which is also obtainable from the Library.

Unemployment by duration in the United Kingdom
January 1979 January 1984 January 1989
Duration of unemployment Unemployed registrants1 Unemployed claimants Unemployed claimants
Over 1 year 354,204 1,188,040 821,419
Over 2 years n/a 616,411 544,507
Over 3 years n/a 332,199 410,667
1 In October 1982 registration at jobcentres became voluntary, necessitating a change to counting claimants at unemployment benefit offices.

Mr. Yeo

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the fall in unemployment in East Anglia during the last 12 months for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Lee

In February 1989 the level of unemployment, seasonally adjusted, in East Anglia was 37,100 compared with 57,200 in February 1988, a fall of 20,100 or 35.1 per cent.

Mr. Devlin

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were employed in Cleveland in each of the last five years.

Mr. Lee

The latest available employment estimates for the county are from the September 1984 census of employment. There were then 183,600 employees in employment in Cleveland. This compares with a figure of 207,000 in September 1981 when the previous census of employment was taken.

More up-to-date county employee estimates, from the September 1987 census of employment, will become available later this year.