asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the total number of vacancies for employment notified to him from the employment areas in the Macclesfield parliamentary constituency; and what were the comparable figures in 1970, 1974 and 1977.

The following table shows the numbers of notified vacancies remaining unfilled in the Macclesfield and Congleton employment office areas, which correspond closely to the Macclesfield parliamentary constituency.

	Employment Offices	Careers Offices
July 1970	295	139
July 1974	389	354
July 1977	182	29
July 1978	276	48

The statistics relate only to vacancies notified to employment offices and careers offices; vacancies notified to employment offices are estimated to be about one-third of all vacancies in the country as a whole. Because of possible duplication, the two series should not be added together.