§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the level of unemployment both in actual numbers and expressed as a percentage, according to the latest figures and in 1979 for(a) Birkenhead travel-to-work area, (b) Merseyside, (c) England and (d) Great Britain; and if he will express the change in the number unemployed in each of the four categories in percentage terms.
§ Mr. NichollsThe information requested is contained in the following tables.
Where available, unemployment data are normally given on a seasonally adjusted, consistent basis, with unemployment rates expressed as a percentage of the work force, as given in table 2. The unadjusted data given for England and Great Britain in table 1 can be used to make comparisons with the smaller area figures, for which seasonally adjusted data are not available. However, comparisons over time shown in table 1 are affected by changes to the count as well as seasonal influences, in particular the change from the registrant to the claimant count in 1982.
47W
Table 2: Unemployment, seasonally adjusted England Great Britain Number Percentage rate1 Number Percentage rate1 January 1979 842,300 3.8 1,049,900 4.0 January 1990 1,221,000 5.1 1,512,200 5.5 Percentage change 45.0 — 44.0 — 1Workforce rates.