§ Mr. JenkinTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the numbers and percentage rates of 18 to 25-year-olds unemployed in(a) November 1997, (b) May 1997 and (c) May 1996 in the local authorities of (i) Angus, (ii) City of Dundee and (iii) Perthshire and Kinross. [23833]
§ Mr. WilsonONS measures unemployment using the internationally standard ILO unemployment rate. This is measured through the Labour Force Survey, which is a survey of households in the United Kingdom. This is internationally agreed and counts the number of people who are:(a) without a paid job; (b) available to start work within the next two weeks and (c) have actively sought work in the last four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained.
The 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 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.
251WThe data requested, which can be derived only from the claimant count due to the sample size of the labour force survey, are presented in the table. Information on rates by age is not available.
Claimant count unemployed aged 18 to 241 2 Angus Dundee City Perth and Kinross (a) November 1997 655 1,633 575 (b) May 1997 835 1,765 675 (c) May 1996 965 2,184 805 Source:
Office for National Statistics.
Notes:
1Information for those aged 18 to 25 is not readily available.
2 Excludes clerical claims, which represent about 1 per cent. of all claims. A full analysis of the age and duration data is available quarterly (January, April, July and October).