Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the change in the level of unemployment in Wolverhampton North East constituency in the last 12 months; and what assessment she made of the reasons for the number of people unemployed in that constituency being higher than the national average.

Since the 2010 election, the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Labour Force Survey data shows that the level and rate of unemployment has fallen in every region and country of the UK.

Estimates of the unemployment rate (age 16+) for Parliamentary Constituency Areas (PCA), and the UK as a whole, are available based upon the ONS’ Annual Population Survey data. However, the PCA unemployment rate estimates are based on small sample of survey respondents and are therefore subject to a high degree of statistical uncertainty.

The ONS estimate that the unemployment rate in Wolverhampton North East for October 2015 to September 2016 was 9.7%. For the latest period (October 2016 to September 2017) the ONS estimate the unemployment rate was 9.0%. This compares to the period October 2009 to September 2010 when the estimate was an unemployment rate of 16.9%.

Estimates of unemployment differ in different areas of the country due to the effects of sample variability; the demographics of the local area and local labour market conditions.