asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing (a) the number of employed in employment, (b) the employed labour force and (c) the numbers wholly unemployed, in the form of annual indices from 1945 to the present day, 1945=100.
Because there has been a number of changes in the methods of making employment estimates, a consistent series of figures from 1945 to the present day does not exist. The table below shows indices for the periods during which the figures are comparable with the beginning of each period taken as the base year. Details of the methods used to produce the estimates on which the figures below are based are given in British Labour Statistics—Historical Abstract 1886–1968 (Appendix B and footnotes to pp 218–220) and Department of Employment Gazette for March 1975 (pp 193–196, December 1976 (pp 1344–1346) and June 1977 (pp 604–605).
| Great Britain (mid-year figures) | ||||
| Employees in employment | Employed labour force‡ | Registered unemployed§ | ||
| 1945 | … | * | 100 | 100 |
| 1946 | … | * | 90 | 365 |
| 1947 | … | * | 93 | 252 |
| 1948(1) | … | * | 93 | 264 |
| 1948(2) | … | * | 100 | 100 |
| 1949 | … | * | 100 | 93 |
| 1950(1) | … | * | 101 | 99 |
| 1950(2) | … | 100 | 100 | 99 |
| 1951 | … | 101 | 102 | 66 |
| 1952 | … | 101 | 102 | 107 |
| 1953 | … | 101 | 102 | 100 |
| 1954 | … | 103 | 103 | 82 |
| 1955 | … | 105 | 105 | 66 |
| 1956 | … | 106 | 106 | 69 |
| 1957 | … | 106 | 106 | 89 |
| 1958 | … | 106 | 105 | 133 |
| 1959(1) | … | 106 | 105 | 139 |
| 1959 (2) | … | 100 | 100 | 139 |
| 1960 | … | 102 | 102 | 108 |
| 1961 | … | 104 | 103 | 92 |
| 1962 | … | 105 | 104 | 135 |
| 1963 | … | 105 | 104 | 167 |
| 1964 | … | 107 | 105 | 115 |
| 1965 | … | 108 | 106 | 98 |
| 1966 | … | 109 | 107 | 92 |
| 1967 | … | 107 | 105 | 169 |
| 1968 | … | 106 | 105 | 183 |
| 1969 | … | 106 | 105 | 175 |
| 1970 | … | 105 | 104 | 190 |
| 1971 | … | 103 | 103 | 249 |
| 1972 | … | 103 | 103 | 277 |
| 1973 | … | 106 | 105 | 197 |
| 1974 | … | 106 | 105 | 187 |
| 1975 | … | 106 | 105 | 300 |
| 1976 | … | 105 | 104 | 463 |
| 1977 | … | 106† | 105† | 504 |
| * Separate estimates of employees in employment for these years are not available. | ||||
| † Employment indices for 1977 are provisional. | ||||
| ‡ The employed labour force comprises employees in employment, the self-employed (with or without employees) and Her Majesty's Forces. | ||||
| § From 1967 onwards, full-time adult students registering for temporary employment have been excluded. Their inclusion before then is thought to have had a negligible effect on the index. | ||||