§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what estimate she has made of the number of job vacancies registered with jobcentres as a result of the drive she announced on 13 August 1992.
§ Mr. McLoughlinResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Mr. M. Fogden to Mr. Frank Dobson, dated 11 March 1993:
As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to write to you direct to respond to your Parliamentary Question about the number of vacancies notified to Jobcentres as a result of her announcement on 13 August 1992. This falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.The national employer advertising campaign was designed to promote positive messages about ES services, and was aimed particularly at employers who had not used ES services before or in recent years. The intention was to attract vacancies from employers for our unemployed clients.691WFor the 1992–93 year from April 1992 to 5 February 1993 the total number of vacancies notified was 1,673,413 (90.3 per cent of the previous year).
Vacancies Notified (Vacancy Date of Return) 1991–92 1992–93 September 211,562 164,046 October 183,830 184,774 November 204,396 203,211 December 148,880 154,993 January 78,492 105,984 TOTALS 827,160 813,008
It can be seen that there was a marginal reduction in the vacancies notified. This is disappointing but not really surprising when set against the current economic climate. Feedback from my offices around the country suggests that there has been a high proportion of contracts from new or lapsed employer users during the campaign. We hope that when employers start recruiting again the goodwill generated by the campaign will encourage them to give their vacancies to Jobcentres.Regular tracking research has been carried out amongst employers. Employers were interviewed before and after the first phase of the campaign in the autumn of 1992.Results showed that we achieved a significant improvement in employer attitudes:
Jobcentres were the only major source of recruitment to experience an increase in usage;employer usage of Jobcentres rose by 4 per cent.—from 63 to 67 per cent.;15 per cent. of non users said they were more likely to use Jobcentres having seen an advertisement;attitudes towards Jobcentres improved.I hope this is helpful.As decided by the Administration Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.