Written question asked by Brian Jenkins (Labour) on Monday, 5 December 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 7 December 2005. It was answered by Baroness Hodge of Barking (Labour) on Monday, 12 December 2005 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Job Vacancies

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies there are in Tamworth constituency; how many there were on the same date last year; and what the vacancy rate in England is per 1,000 of population.

Answer: Nationally the number of vacancies remains at a historically high level. The latest vacancy survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates there were 605.1 thousand unfilled vacancies in the quarter to October 2005, compared to 638.4 thousand this time last year. The ONS vacancy ratio for the UK for October 2005 (the latest data) is 2.3. This is the number of vacancies per 100 employee jobs. The specific information requested on the vacancy rate for England is not available.More than 10,000 new vacancies are placed at Jobcentres every working day and at least as many again come up through other recruitment channels. In the Tamworth constituency 427 vacancies were notified to Jobcentre Plus in November 2004, rising to 662 in October 2005.

Secondary information