Unemployment: Tower Hamlets
Work and Pensions
Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow, Labour)
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people aged 25 and under in (a) Bethnal Green and Bow constituency and (b) Tower Hamlets have been unemployed for (i) six, (ii) 12 and (iii) 24 months.
Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)
I have been asked to reply
on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Glen Watson, dated January 2013
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many people aged 25 and under in (a) Bethnal Green and Bow constituency and (b) Tower Hamlets have been unemployed for (i) six, (ii) 12 and (iii) 24 months. (136616)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles unemployment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions. However, estimates of unemployment for the requested age bands, durations and geographies are not available due to small sample sizes.
As an alternative, in Table 1 we have provided the number of persons, aged 16 to 24 years, in line with our normal age bands, claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA), in the requested geographies, for (a) up to 6 months, (b) 6 to 12 months, (c) 12 to 24 months and (d) 24 months and over, for the latest period available. The counts of people claiming JSA are those who are claiming benefits for unemployment related purposes. At a UK level the total number of JSA claimants is around two thirds of the total unemployment level.
National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at
| Table 1: Number(1) of 16 to 24-year-olds claiming jobseeker's allowance for (a) up to 6 months, (b) 6 to 12 months, (c) 12 to 24 months, and (d) over 24 months, in Bethnal Green and Bow and Tower Hamlets, November 2012 | ||||
| People aged 16 to 24 years(2) | Up to 6 months | 6 to 12 months | 12 to 24 months | 24 months and over |
| Tower Hamlets | 2,030 | 320 | 480 | 90 |
| Bethnal Green and Bow | 1,010 | 150 | 215 | 40 |
| (1 )Data rounded to the nearest 5. (2 )Age data are only available for computerised claims, which account for 99.7% of all claims. | ||||