§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out the figures underlying Chart 3, on long-term youth unemployment, in the Treasury paper "The Goal of Full Employment: Employment Opportunities for all Throughout Britain", published in February. [116852]
§ Mr. Andrew Smith[holding answer 4 April 2000]: The figures refer to those aged 18-24 claimant unemployed for six months or longer. Since the data are not seasonally adjusted a moving average over one year was taken to smooth out seasonality. Prior to 1995 data are available only quarterly and missing months were estimated by interpolation. The figures for December, being representative of each year, are shown in the table.
21W
Long-term youth unemployment1 Year Number 1979 114,864 1980 146,645 1981 327,438 1982 453,931 1983 486,239 1984 525,466 1985 527,531 1986 483,810 1987 398,838 1988 283,460 1989 193,960 1990 159,035 1991 238,320 1992 340,254 1993 370,381 1994 323,078
Long-term youth unemployment1 Year Number 1995 270,308 1996 229,548 1997 146,793 1998 101,263 1999 58,651 1 Those aged 18-24 claimant unemployed for six months or more. Figures refer to the average over the previous 12 months of non-seasonally adjusted data in December for each year.