Unemployment statistics 1945-74 for towns and development areas from the Labour Gazette

Table ID:

UNEM_1945_1974     (1253342)

Contents:

Unemployment statistics 1945-74 for towns and development areas from the Labour Gazette

Approx. number of rows:

16,091

Table type:

Raw Data

Documentation Author:

Humphrey Southall

Geography:

Reporting units are identified by:
   Unspecified Place

Chronology:

The data cover the period 1945 to 1974.

Sources:

1. This table holds unemployment statistics transcribed from the Labour Gazette. This was published monthly, but the transcription is limited to quarterly data, i.e. January-April-July-October.
2. The transcription was created by clerical staff at Portsmouth in 2004, with funding from the Nuffield Foundation.

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Notes:

1. These reports are limited to the number of people receiving benefits and contain no information on the number of people covered by unemployment insurance, so additional information is needed to compute an unemployment rate.
2. The Gazette always reported the total number of unemployed, but there was variation over time in how this was broken down by age and gender:
   • 1945-55:Males over 18, Females over 18, Total under 18.
   • 1955-60:Males over 18, Males under 18, Females over 18, Females under 18.
   • 1960-72:Males over 18, Females over 18, Total under 18 (i.e. as for 1945-55).
   • Jan. 1973-Jan. 1974:Males over 18, Males under 18, Females over 18, Females under 18 (i.e. as for 1955-60).
   • Apr.-Oct. 1974:Total Males, Total Females.
3. Until January 1960, the data are simply for 'Towns'. Between April 1960 and July 1966, there were two distinct listings, for 'Principal Towns' and for 'Development Districts', although in practice the former excluded towns within the latter, i.e. areas of high unemployment; for example, the only 'Principal Towns' listed in Scotland in this entire period were Edinburgh and Aberdeen. From October 1966 onwards there was a single listing combining Principal Towns and Development Areas.

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Checking:

1. A simple check sums was computed for all dates, comparing total unemployed with the sum of the age/gender categories. This identified 10 errors in the original reports which could not be corrected.
2. The geographical units have been cross-checked against the GBHGIS administrative unit gazetteer to ensure that all units are correctly identified with a unique unit ID. They have been matched to the urban labour market units in the AUO.
   Belfast and Londonderry appear from 1945 through to 1960 inclusive and are not matched to the AUO. All other rows before 1960 are matched to the AUO.
   From 1960 the different types of unit are not necessarily included in the AUO. While matching has been attempted, it is incomplete because some units do not have entries in the AUO. 243 rows remain unmatched.
3. This table is still very much a work in progress and should be used with caution.

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Indices:

Index	Type	Column(s) indexed
unem_1945_1974_idx		x_region, x_place, rep_date

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Columns within table:

Column	Type	Contents
rep_day	Integer number.	Reporting day (i.e. date wiithin the month).
rep_month	Text string (max.len.=12).	Reporting month, i.e. January, April, July or October.
rep_year	Integer number.	Reporting year.
rep_date	Database date value.	Database date value, constructed from rep_day, rep_month and rep_year.
place_type	Text string (max.len.=20).	Whether the data row comes from a table for towns, for development areas, or a mixture. The possible values are TOWN, DEV_DIST and TOWN_D_AREA. NB in the last case this label does not say what a particular row is, only what table it came from.
x_region	Text string (max.len.=30).	Text string, usually a short code, indicating the region containing the reporting area.
x_place	Text string (max.len.=84).	Name of the reporting area, as listed in the original report.
g_unit	Integer number.	ID number as defined in the AUO.
adult_male	Integer number.	Numbers of adult males (over 18) unemployed.
adult_fem	Integer number.	Numbers of adult females (over 18) unemployed.
adult_tot	Integer number.	[No description available]
under_18_male	Integer number.	Number of males aged under 18 unemployed. Only available for 1955-60 and 1973-4.
under_18_fem	Integer number.	Number of females aged under 18 unemployed. Only available for 1955-60 and 1973-4.
under_18_tot	Integer number.	Total number of unemployed persons aged under 18. NB where the report breaks the under-18s down by gender, this value has been computed by summing males and females under 18.
male_tot	Integer number.	Total number of males unemployed (i.e. of all ages). This is the only data available in 1974, and it has been computed for 1955-60 and for 1973.
fem_tot	Integer number.	Total number of females unemployed (i.e. of all ages). This is the only data available in 1974, and it has been computed for 1955-60 and for 1973.
tot_unem	Integer number.	Total unemployed.
rec_num	Integer number.	Unique sequence number.