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Written question asked by Andrew Rosindell (Conservative) on Wednesday, 3 December 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 December 2008. It was answered by Tony McNulty (Labour) on Tuesday, 16 December 2008 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Jobcentres

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer of 26 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1993-94W, on jobcentres, how many vacancies have been advertised in jobcentres in each of the last six months.
Answer

The available information is in the table.

Jobcentre Plus vacancies: Great Britain
Notified vacancies Live unfilled vacancies
November 2007 381,463 469,282
December 2007 393,606 394,904
January 2008 194,349 299,192
February 2008 459,053 387,359
March 2008 362,386 397,505
April 2008 346,063 385,082
May 2008 341,317 377,648
June 2008 415,627 386,810
July 2008 316,569 353,493
August 2008 405,470 348,451
September 2008 353,036 373,922
October 2008 366,690 383,331
Notes:
1. Interpretation of this data needs 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 at https://www.nomisweb.co.uk
2. Notified vacancies includes 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 the job opportunities actually 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.
4. 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.
Source:
Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
485 c618W; 241037
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Jobcentres Jobcentre Plus Vacancies
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk