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Unemployment: Wellingborough

Answer

[holding answer 14 December 2006]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 8 January 2007:"As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary questions about unemployment. (109240,109243).""The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics of unemployment for parliamentary constituencies from the annual local area Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Annual Population Survey (APS) following International Labour Organisation definitions.""Table 1, attached, shows the number of unemployed people, aged 16 to 24 and aged 25 and over, resident in the Wellingborough constituency for the 12 months ending in February 1997 from the annual local area LFS and for the 12 months ending in June 2006 from the APS. Table 2 shows corresponding unemployment rates which are defined as the number of unemployed expressed as a percentage of the economically active population in the relevant age group.""As these estimates are for a subset of the population in a small geographical area, they are based on very small sample sizes, and are therefore subject to large margins of uncertainty. In this case, the sample sizes are not sufficient to give an accurate estimate of even the direction of the change over the period.""ONS also compiles statistics for local areas of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA). Table 3, attached, shows the annual average number of people aged 18 to 24 and aged 25 and over, resident in the Wellingborough constituency, claiming JSA for the 12 months ending in November 1997 and November 2006. Sub-regional claimant count data is not seasonally adjusted and thus comparisons between different months may cause distortions. Annual averages are shown to remove seasonally and years ending November are shown to include the latest month's data in the comparison."

Table 1: Number of unemployed persons resident in the Wellingborough constituency.
Thousand
		Aged
12 months ending	Total	16 to 24	25 and over
February 1997	2	1	1
March 2006	3	2	¹—
¹ The number of respondents in this category is too small to provide estimates. Note: 1. Estimates are subject to sampling variability. 2. Changes in the estimates over time should be treated with particular caution Source: Annual local area Labour Force Survey; Annual Population Survey

Table 2: Unemployment rates¹ for persons resident in the Wellingborough constituency.
Percentage
		Aged
12 months ending	Total	16 to 24	25 and over
February 1997	4.0	8.8	3.1
March 2006	4.7	18.0	²—
¹. Unemployed as a percentage of the economically active population ². The number of respondents in this category is too small to provide estimates Note: 1. Estimates are subject to sampling variability. 2. Changes in the estimates over time should be treated with particular caution. Source: Annual local area Labour Force Survey; Annual Population Survey

Table 3: Average number of claimants of Jobseeker's Allowance resident in the Wellingborough constituency
Not seasonally adjusted
		Aged¹
12 months ending	Total	16 to 17	18 to 24	25 and over
November 1997	1,793	25	470	1,290
November 2006	1,511	15	460	1,035
¹ Claimant count by age includes computerised claims only. Dataset rounded to the nearest five. Source: Jobcentre Plus administrative data

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

455 c431-2W;455 c429-30W; 109243

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Unemployment Wellingborough

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk