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Written question asked by Lord Campbell of Pittenweem (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 21 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 23 April 2009. It was answered by Tony McNulty (Labour) on Tuesday, 5 May 2009 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Employment: Fife

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many job vacancies were advertised in job centres in North East Fife constituency in each month of 2008; and for how long on average such vacancies were advertised.
Answer

The information requested is shown in the following table.The coverage of these figures relates only to vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus and as such represent a market share of vacancies throughout the whole economy. This proportion varies over time, according to the occupation of the vacancy and industry of the employer, and by local area. Comprehensive estimates of all job vacancies (not just those notified to Jobcentre Plus) are available from the monthly ONS Vacancy Survey since April 2001, based on a sample of some 6,000 enterprises. However, the ONS survey is currently designed to provide national estimates only.

Vacancies advertised in North East Fife parliamentary constituency in each month of 2008
Live unfilled vacancies Median duration (days between notification and closure)
January 182 40.2
February 315 20.1
March 443 14.6
April 426 21.2
May 341 12.9
June 394 20.9
July 549 6.4
August 421 28.5
September 456 22.1
October 289 21.1
November 172 19.4
December 181 11.2
Notes:
1. Data are unrounded.
2. The stocks of live unfilled vacancies reflect more accurately job opportunities available via Jobcentre Plus. In the case of unfilled vacancies, use of the figures on live vacancies is recommended (i.e. excluding suspended vacancies), and this is the default option. Live vacancies may still include some vacancies which have already been filled or are otherwise no longer open to recruits, due to natural lags in procedures for following up vacancies with employers.
3. The median duration (in days) is calculated by ranking all the vacancies in order of ascending duration and taking the middle value. Half the vacancies will have a duration greater than the median, and half will have a duration less than the median. For most purposes, the median will give a more representative measure of the average duration a mean figure tends to be distorted by a small number of vacancies that have very long durations. The median duration is available using live unfilled vacancy figures only.
4. These figures are published at:
www.nomisweb.co.uk
Source:
Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
492 c118-9W; 270861
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Vacancies Fife
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk