asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the latest level of unemployment on Merseyside; how many workers are unemployed giving separate figures for males, females and youths; what percentage this represents; how this compares with the national average; how many notifications of jobs there are; and whether the trend is upwards or downwards.

					Merseyside Special Development Area	Great Britain
Number unemployed	…	…	…	…	81,100	1,320,923
of which—
males	…	…	…	…	59,076	972,159
females	…	…	…	…	22,024	348,764
school-leavers	…	…	…	…	8,067	77,957
Percentage rate of unemployment	…	…	…	…	10·7	5·7
Notified unfilled vacancies—
at employment offices	…	…	…	…	2,725	137,713
at careers offices	…	…	…	…	174	22,661

Comprehensive figures of the numbers of unemployed young people are not available for October 1976. At July 1976, the numbers under 20 years of age were 27,389 in the Merseyside special development area and 390,246 in Great Britain. Separate figures are available each month showing the numbers of school leavers unemployed and these are shown in the table above.

						Notified unfilled vacancies
					Numbers unemployed	Employment offices	Careers offices
October 1975	…	…	…	…	72,282	2,670	204
November 1975		…	…	…	73,002	3,006	277
December 1975	…	…	…	…	74,156	2,921	175
January 1976	…	…	…	…	77,278	2,008	194
February 1976	…	…	…	…	76,495	2,088	242
March 1976	…	…	…	…	75,010	2,273	242
April 1976	…	…	…	…	75,390	2,442	229
May 1976	…	…	…	…	75,994	2,185	169
June 1976	…	…	…	…	80,997	2,231	155
July 1976	…	…	…	…	86,620	2,169	124
August 1976	…	…	…	…	87,153	2,452	135
September 1976		…	…	…	85,612	2,639	205
October 1976	…	…	…	…	81,100	2,725	174
The vacancy figures relate only to vacancies notified to employment offices and careers offices and are not a measure of total vacancies. Because of possible duplication, the two series should not be added together.