§ Mr. BattleTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total number of registered vacancies as a percentage of the unemployment figure in the Leeds metropolitan district for each of the years April 1979 to 1989; and what was the average number of vacancies in the Leeds area for the years 1979 to 1989.
§ Mr. LeeThe following is the available information which is also in the Library. The table shows the monthly average numbers of unfilled vacancies at jobcentres covering an area closely corresponding to the Leeds metropolitan district, together with the monthly average number of unemployed claimants in Leeds, for the years 1983 to 1988. Unemployment figures will be slightly affected by changes to the count.
It is not valid to compare ratios of unfilled vacancies to numbers of unemployed claimants since only about a third of vacancies in the economy are reported to jobcentres and this proportion will tend to vary over time and between regions.
Monthly average figures of unfilled vacancies and unemployment in the Leeds area for the calendar years 1983 to 19881 Calendar year Vacancies Unemployment 21983 1,792 40,602 1984 1,664 41,301 1985 1,615 43,517 1986 2,270 41,826 1987 2,824 38,904 1988 2,651 30,982 1 Comprising the jobcentres of Crossgates, Harefills, Horsforth, Hunslet, Leeds, Leeds Commercial, Morley, Oitley, Rothwell, Seacroft, Wetherby and Yeadon for vacancy figures and the Leeds local authority area for unemployment figures. 2 The requested information is only available on a comparable basis for vacancies from April 1983 and unemployment from June 1983. The averages for 1983 are compiled using data for June to December, for the sake of consistency.