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Mr. Skeet
asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the total number of small firms in the United Kingdom, the number of workers involved therewith, and, of the total number of unemployed, the number or proportion that has been derived from small firms.
Mr. Dudley Smith
The Bolton Committee of Inquiry on Small Firms estimated that there were approximately 820,000 small firms employing about 4·4 million persons within their field of study. No information is available from any source of the number or proportion of total unemployed who were last employed by small firms.
| NOTIFIED VACANCIES FOR MEN AND WOMEN AGED 18 YEARS AND OVER REMAINING UNFILLED IN WALES | ||||||
| December, 1970 | December, 1971 | |||||
| Men | Women | Men | Women | |||
| Nurses | … | … | 31 | 199 | 23 | 193 |
| Postal and telecommunication services | … | … | 32 | 20 | 155 | 10 |
| Colliery workers (including labourers) | … | … | 1,179 | — | 669 | — |
| Transport workers | … | … | 233 | 32 | 134 | 19 |
| All other occupations | … | … | 2,109 | 1,434 | 1,684 | 1,030 |
| Total, all occupations | … | … | 3,584 | 1,685 | 2,665 | 1,252 |
Vacancies for local government manual workers are included in the figures but are not identified separately.