(2) how many people under the age of 19 years were identified as unemployed in (a) Mid Sussex and (b) West Sussex in each of the last five years;
(3) how many people identified as unemployed in (a) Mid Sussex and (b) West Sussex had been out of work for 12 months or more in each of the last five months.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated April 2009:
As National Statistician, 1 have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking how many people have been made redundant in (a) Mid Sussex and (b) West Sussex in the last six months; how many people under the age of 19 years were identified as unemployed in (a) Mid Sussex and (b) West Sussex in each of the last five years; and how many people identified as unemployed in (a) Mid Sussex and (b) West Sussex had been out of work for 12 months or more in each of the last five months. (270700, 270701 & 270702)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles labour market statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) and its predecessor the annual Labour Force Survey (LPS) following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions. However, this source does not support analysis of redundancies at these geographic levels and no alternate source is available.
It is also not possible to produce analysis of unemployed by small age groups, or for specific durations, for small geographic areas from this source. As an alternative, analysis of the count of claimants of Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) for small geographic areas has been provided.
Table 1 shows the number of persons under the age of 19 claiming JSA, resident in Mid Sussex and West Sussex.
Table 2 shows the number of persons claiming JSA for more than 12 months resident in Mid Sussex and West Sussex has been provided as estimates for 12 months or more are not available.
As these estimates are for a subset of the population in small geographical areas, they are based on small sample sizes, and are therefore subject to large margins of uncertainty.
National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available from the NOMIS website at
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
As at February each year Mid Sussex West Sussex 2005 73 485 2006 64 646 2007 69 691 2008 57 622 2009 114 1,271 Source: Jobcentre Plus administrative system
Mid Sussex West Sussex October 2008 47 536 November 2008 48 599 December 2008 49 625 January 2009 54 667 February 2009 55 732 Source: Jobcentre Plus administrative system