asked the Minister of Labour the number of civil servants employed on compiling the unemployment figures of 15th October and the cause of the delay in publishing them; what steps he proposes to take to expedite the publication of monthly statistics in the future; and what will be the anticipated delay before publication.

The compilation of the returns relating to unemployment occupy part of the time of a large number of civil servants in the regional and local offices of the Ministry and in headquarter departments. It would involve considerable cost to make an estimate of the total staff time involved. The time taken is in the preparation of statistics for eight

Insured persons registered as unemployed in Great Britain.
		Date.	Men 18–64.	Boys 14–17.	Women 18–59.	Girls 14–17.	Total.
Wholly unemployed (including casuals)	Unemployed for not more than 2 weeks Unemployed for more than 2 weeks	16th July	17,727	3,793	12,268	2,989	36,777
		15th Oct.	31,502	4,710	26,304	4,700	67,207
		16th July	45,359	1,201	18,092	1,036	65,688
		15th Oct.	92,183	3,029	67.158	2,952.	165,322
Temporarily stopped		16th July	388	1	491	18	898
		15th Oct.	413	4	367	13	797
Total		16th July	63,474	4,995	30,851	4,043	103,363
		15th Oct.	124,098	7,734	93,829	7,665	233,326

In addition, there were on the Register at 15th October, 12,484 uninsured persons including 5,458 boys and girls under 16 who had not yet entered industry as compared with a total of 10,438 at 16th July, including 9,153 such boys and girls.