asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people in England and Wales have been unemployed for longer than 12 months; and what is the percentage which this represents of the adult population as a whole.
At 14 January, the latest date for which the information is available, the number of people registered as unemployed in England and Wales for over 52 weeks was 759,101, representing 3·6 per cent. of total employees—employed and unemployed.
asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the latest unemployment figures for (a) North-East Lancashire and (b) Accrington; and if he will compare these with the 1979 figures.
At March 1982, the provisional numbers of people registered as unemployed in North-East Lancashire and in the Accrington employment office area were 27,748 and 3,356, respectively. The corresponding figures at March 1979 were 9,966 and 1,064.
asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons were unemployed in each of the travel-to-work areas in Yorkshire in 1974, 1978, 1979 and at the latest available date for 1982.
[pursuant to his reply, 18 March 1982, c. 182]: The following table gives the numbers registered as unemployed in the areas specified at February in each of the years 1978, 1979 and 1982. Figures on a comparable basis for 1974 could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
February 1978
| February 1979
| February 1982
| |
| Wakefield* | 3,882 | 3,978 | 8,522 |
| Whitby | 635 | 699 | 1,308 |
| York | 3,648 | 3,617 | 6,609 |
* Travel-to-work area comprising two or more employment office areas. | |||
asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were unemployed in each of the travel-to-work areas in the West Midlands in (a) May 1979 and (b) February 1982; and if he will break the figures down to show men and women.
| May 1979 | February 1982 | |||||
| Male | Female | Total | Male | Female | Total | |
| *Birmingham | 29,416 | 10,733 | 40,149 | 86,061 | 29,243 | 115,304 |
| Burton-on-Trent | 860 | 413 | 1,273 | 2,812 | 1,111 | 3,923 |
| *Coventry | 9,900 | 5,529 | 15,429 | 27,143 | 10,517 | 37,660 |
| *Dudley/Sandwell | 8,690 | 3,529 | 12,219 | 34,186 | 12,200 | 46,386 |
| Evesham | 280 | 119 | 399 | 813 | 289 | 1,102 |
| Hereford | 1,238 | 642 | 1,880 | 2,814 | 1,303 | 4,117 |
| *Kidderminster | 1,370 | 615 | 1,985 | 3,761 | 1,872 | 5,633 |
| Leamington | 1,282 | 608 | 1,890 | 3,837 | 1,589 | 5,426 |
| Ledbury | 175 | 51 | 226 | 335 | 89 | 424 |
| Leek | 411 | 139 | 550 | 860 | 361 | 1,221 |
| Leominster | 315 | 70 | 385 | 548 | 229 | 777 |
| Ludlow | 370 | 120 | 490 | 840 | 314 | 1,154 |
| Market Drayton | 234 | 115 | 349 | 573 | 301 | 874 |
| *Oakengates | 2,885 | 1,575 | 4,460 | 8,937 | 3,130 | 12,067 |
| Oswestry | 539 | 181 | 720 | 1,213 | 487 | 1,700 |
| Redditch | 1,017 | 516 | 1,533 | 3,821 | 1,788 | 5,609 |
| Ross on Wye | 220 | 84 | 304 | 539 | 221 | 760 |
| Rugby | 874 | 617 | 1,491 | 2,503 | 1,250 | 3,753 |
| Shrewsbury | 1,140 | 397 | 1,537 | 3,102 | 1,507 | 4,609 |
| *Stafford | 1,158 | 531 | 1,689 | 3,195 | 1,442 | 4,637 |
| *Stoke on Trent | 6,096 | 1,973 | 8,069 | 18,931 | 9,175 | 28,106 |
| Stratford on Avon | 374 | 110 | 484 | 1,243 | 523 | 1,766 |
| Utoxeter | 168 | 81 | 249 | 590 | 202 | 792 |
| *Walsall | 5,775 | 2,654 | 8,429 | 20,798 | 8,379 | 29,177 |
| Whitchurch | 163 | 56 | 219 | 543 | 161 | 704 |
| *Wolverhampton | 5,616 | 2,565 | 8,181 | 17,713 | 6,078 | 23,791 |
| *Worcester | 2,254 | 846 | 3,100 | 6,289 | 2,224 | 8,513 |
| * Travel-to-work area comprising two or more employment office areas. | ||||||