asked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) how many factory closures have been reported since May 1979; and how many employees have been involved in (a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands.(2) how many redundancies have been reported since May 1979 in
(a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands; and how many are pending.
[pursuant to his reply, 8 November 1982, c. 77]: There are no comprehensive statistics of closures or redundancies. The available information on closures and redundancies involving 10 or more employees reported to the Manpower Services Commission as due to occur in the requested areas between May 1979 and September 1982 are given in the following table:
| Wolverhampton employment office area | West Midlands region | |||
| Standard Industrial Classification, 1968 | Number unemployed | As a percentage of total unemployed | Number unemployed | As a percentage of total unemployed |
| Agriculture, forestry, fishing | 66 | 0·4 | 3,453 | 1·0 |
| Mining and quarrying | 11 | 0·1 | 2,918 | 0·8 |
| Food, drink and tobacco | 200 | 1·1 | 7,095 | 2·1 |
| Coal and petroleum products | 6 | - | 155 | - |
| Chemicals and allied industries | 127 | 0·7 | 2,340 | 0·7 |
| Metal manufacture | 815 | 4·6 | 15,048 | 4·4 |
| Mechanical engineering | 440 | 2·5 | 14,122 | 4·1 |
| Instrument engineering | 4 | — | 651 | 0·2 |
| Electrical engineering | 351 | 2·0 | 8,968 | 2·6 |
| Shipbuilding and marine engineering | 6 | — | 166 | — |
| Vehicles | 362 | 2·0 | 26,107 | 7·6 |
| Metal goods not elsewhere specified | 2,918 | 16·4 | 38,771 | 11·3 |
| Textiles | 144 | 0·8 | 3,192 | 0·9 |
| Leather, leather goods and fur | 2 | — | 674 | 0·2 |
| Clothing and footwear | 191 | 1·1 | 2,893 | 0·8 |
| Bricks, pottery, glass, cement, etc. | 39 | 0·2 | 9,295 | 2·7 |
| Timber, furniture, etc. | 134 | 0·8 | 2,667 | 0·8 |
| Paper, printing and publishing | 103 | 0·6 | 2,755 | 0·8 |
| Other manufacturing industries | 487 | 2·7 | 6,675 | 1·9 |
| Construction | 1,561 | 8·8 | 34,151 | 9·9 |
| Gas, electricity and water | 34 | 0·2 | 1,376 | 0·4 |
| Transport and communication | 408 | 2·3 | 9,527 | 2·8 |
| Distributive trades | 1,256 | 7·1 | 29,234 | 8·5 |
| Insurance, banking, finance and business services | 201 | 1·1 | 5,516 | 1·6 |
| Professional and scientific services | 330 | 1·9 | 9,933 | 2·9 |
| Miscellaneous services | 1,299 | 7·3 | 27,859 | 8·1 |
| Public administration and defence | 452 | 2·5 | 10,205 | 3·0 |
| Not classified by industry (including school leavers) | 5,841 | 32·8 | 67,705 | 19·7 |
| TOTAL | 17,788 | 100·0 | 343,451 | 100·0 |
Closures and redundancies reported as due to occur, May 1979 to September 1982*
| ||
Wolverhampton TTWA
| West Midlands region
| |
| Factory Closures: | ||
| Number of Establishments | 35 | 640 |
| Number of Redundancies involved | 1,894 | 36,142 |
| Total redundancies | 12,144 | 169,077 |
| Redundancies pending | 1,042 | 9,895 |
* These include provisional figures for September.