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Written question asked by Bob Spink (Independent (affiliation)) on Tuesday, 30 June 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 2 July 2009. It was answered by Lord Knight of Weymouth (Labour) on Monday, 20 July 2009 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Jobcentre Plus: Essex

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobs have been advertised at customer-facing Jobcentre Plus units in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point in each of the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement.
Answer

All Jobcentre Plus offices have access to all vacancies advertised by Jobcentre Plus. Each office has jobpoints that allow jobseekers to search for jobs by various criteria including location. Therefore jobseekers using the Jobcentre Plus offices in Essex and Castle Point will be able to access the same vacancies as would a jobseeker in any other part of the country.The number of vacancies advertised for Essex and the Castle Point constituency in the latest 12 months for which data are available are shown in the following table.

Number of notified vacancies Number of live unfilled vacancies
Essex Castle point Essex Castle point
June 2008 8,144 331 6,606 331
July 2008 6,706 270 6,662 366
August 2008 8,203 210 6,633 259
September 2008 6,299 263 5,939 253
October 2008 6,864 263 6,185 318
November 2008 6,855 180 5,803 188
December 2008 3,923 135 4,311 168
January 2009 2,241 108 2,687 103
February 2009 6,150 329 3,890 164
March 2009 4,782 254 3,954 226
April 2009 4,534 231 3,758 125
May 2009 5,503 246 4,112 241
Notes:
1. Interpretation of these data need to take account of changes in recent years to Jobcentre Plus procedures for taking and handling vacancies. These figures are not fully comparable over time and may not indicate developments in the labour market. A more detailed explanation is available on the nomis website.
2. Notified vacancies include any speculative placings recorded by Jobcentre Plus. Datasets from May 2006 may reflect substantially reduced levels of speculative placings as part of the notified series. Consequently, care should be taken in interpreting time-series data.
3. The stocks of 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 (that is, 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 time lags in procedures for following up vacancies with employers.
4. Data are unrounded.
5. Comprehensive estimates of all job vacancies (not just those notified to Jobcentre Plus) have been 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.
Source:
Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
496 c844-6W; 283887
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Essex Vacancies
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk