asked the Paymaster General how many people in London are unemployed; and how many have been without work for over a year.

The following information is in the Library. On 8 January 1987, the number of unemployed claimants in the Greater London area was 398,833 of whom 156,988 had been unemployed for over one year.

asked the Paymaster General how many young people under the age of 18 years are currently registered as unemployed.

On 8 January 1987 the number of unemployed claimants aged under 18 years in the United Kingdom was 162,241.

asked the Paymaster General if he will give the total numbers of men and women employed in Yorkshire and Humberside, South Yorkshire and Barnsley travel-to-work area in 1979, and each succeeding year to date.

[pursuant to his reply, 24 February 1987]: The figures for Yorkshire and Humberside can be given, but employment statistics for counties and smaller areas are available only for those dates when censuses of employment are taken.The table gives the available information from censuses taken in June 1978, September 1981, September 1984. As results of the 1978 census are not available for the new ward based travel-to-work areas, the figure for Barnsley relate to the area as defined before the 1984 review.

asked the Paymaster General what is the up-to-date average unemployment figure for each of the travel-to-work areas in the United Kingdom, specifiying the male, female, long-term unemployed and youth unemployed, separately.

[pursuant to his reply, 24 February 1987]: I am sending the right hon. Member the information requested which is also available from the Library. The information relates to the total numbers of unemployed male and female claimants, the numbers of claimants who had been

Employees in employment
(Thousands)
	June 1978			September 1981			September 1984
Yorkshire and Humberside	1,186·9	800·5	1,987·4	1,077·4	765·3	1,842·8	1,004·8	759·0	1,773·8
South Yorkshire	339·5	212·9	552·4	303·6	200·4	504·0	not yet available
Sheffield travel-to-work-area	171·8	110·5	282·3	151·7	104·8	256·5	not yet available

Between censuses, employment statistics are based on small scale sample inquiries which cannot produce reliable results for areas smaller than the standard economic regions. The estimates for the Yorkshire and Humberside region are recorded on page 31 of the supplement published with the February edition of "Employment Gazette".

asked the Paymaster General (1) what comparisons are available to him of employment growth within the European Economic Community in the United States of America and Japan;(2) what comparisons are available to him of the growth in self-employment within the European Economic Community in the United States of America and Japan.

The best comparisons available to me are published by the OECD in "Labour Force Statistics 1964–1984", a copy of which is available in the Library, but all such international comparisons must be treated with care as it is difficult to obtain a consistent basis for the data from each country.