HC Deb 09 July 1997 vol 297 cc474-5W
Ms Walley

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many persons aged under 25 years in the constituency of Stoke-on-Trent, North and nationally(a) are registered unemployed and (b) have never been employed. [6863]

Mrs. Liddell

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked hint to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Tim Holt to Ms Joan Walley, dated 8 July 1997: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as Director of the Office for National Statistics to your recent question on how many persons under 25 are (a) registered unemployed and (b) have never been employed nationally and in the parliamentary constituency of Stoke-on-Trent North. The measure of unemployment, derived from the quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS), is defined on a consistent and internationally recognised basis set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and counts as unemployed people who are: a) without a paid job; b) available to start work within the next two weeks and c) have either looked for work in the last four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained. However, largely because it is a sample survey, information is not available from the LFS in as much geographical detail as from the claimant count measure described below. ONS also publishes the monthly claimant count, which is based on the administrative system and includes all people claiming unemployment-related benefits (i.e. Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support or National Insurance credits) at Employment Service offices on the day of the monthly count, who on that day had signed on as unemployed and available to do any suitable work. Essentially, all people who attend an Employment Service office to sign are counted, irrespective of whether they arc actually receiving benefit. Data for the number of registered unemployed can only be derived from the claimant count. However, the claimant count does not have information on the numbers of people who have never been employed. The data you have requested for Stoke-on-Trent North can only be derived from the claimant count, as the LFS does not give details down to constituency level. The winter 1996/7 LFS shows that there were 1,592,000 people aged 16–24 who have never been employed (other than in casual or holiday jobs) in the United Kingdom. To put this information into context the attached table shows the total breakdown by educational and economic status. For example, you can see that, from the total of 1,592,000 nearly 83 per cent (1,322,000) were economically inactive, that is they had not looked for work in the past four weeks or were neither available to start work in the next two weeks nor waiting to start a job they had already obtained. 1,186,000 of the total were full-time school, college or university students. The claimant count in April 1997 showed that there were 575 claimants under 25 in the Stoke-on-Trent North parliamentary constituency. This compared to a figure of 440,028 claimants under 25 in the United Kingdom in April 1997.

People aged 16–24 in the Untied Kingdom who have not had a paid job, winter 1996–97, not seasonally adjusted
Thousands
All Full-time student Not full-time student
All of which: 1,592 1,186 406
ILO unemployed 270 93 177
Economically inactive 1,322 1,093 230

Source:

ONS, LFS.

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