§ 12. Mr. Lawrenceasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the rate of increase in unemployment in other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the past year; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. TebbitUnemployment in the OECD as a whole in the 12 months ending November 1982 is estimated to have increased by 25 per cent. The increase in the United Kingdom was 11 per cent. Unemployment rose faster than in the United Kingdom in a number of countries, including the United States, Canada, Germany and Italy.
§ Mr. LawrenceIs not the proper conclusion to be drawn from those figures that while the level of unemployment in Britain is still tragically high, it is an indisputable fact that Government policies have been responsible for an increase that is lower than that in any other industrial country of the Western world?
§ Mr. TebbitMy hon. and learned Friend is right. In recent times the rate of unemployment in Britian has been rising more slowly than in many other countries. It is interesting, viewed in the longer term, to find that unemployment in Germany rose, during the period of the previous Labour Government here, by 80 per cent. while our level rose by 112 per cent. Germany did better than us. Since May 1979, unemployment in Germany has risen by 144 per cent., and here by 138 per cent. We now appear to be doing rather better than Germany.
§ Mr. AshleyDoes the Secretary of State seriously believe that this kind of selective figure impresses anyone outside the House? Will he say how our unemployment rate overall has risen since 1979 compared with the OECD countries?
§ Mr. TebbitThe right hon. Gentleman must not believe that anyone outside the House, or outside the Labour half of the House, believes that unemployment is a problem solely related to this country. It is significant that the magic formula that the TUC has now discovered for curing unemployment is one that did not work in the period of the Labour Government and is not believed in by any other Government in the world.
§ Mr. FormanDoes not evidence from Japan and some other countries show that those members of the OECD which have taken the trouble to keep down their inflation rate have had greater success in keeping down unemployment?
§ Mr. TebbitYes, indeed. The experience also suggests that those countries which have introduced new technologies and willingly accepted them and which have made use of their greater productivity have prospered to a greater degree than those of us who have dragged our heels.
§ Mr. RadiceIs the Secretary of State aware that his selective answers ignore France, where the year-on-year increase is 5 per cent. from December to December, which is considerably lower than ours? Is the right hon. 872 Gentleman also aware that if one takes the figures since May 1979, not only has our decline in output been the sharpest in the OECD area, but the increase in the United Kingdom unemployment rate is the greatest for all the major OECD countries?
§ Mr. TebbitIt is possible that the hon. Member might be accused of using selective statistics. He mentioned France, which gives me the opportunity to pay tribute to that great French President and patriot, President Mitterrand, who has not only grappled with some of his economic problems, although not with entire success, but has had the skill and success to carry even his Communist partners with him in being staunch, secure and firm in his defence of a nuclear policy, which is more than I can say for the hon. Member and his party.
§ 14. Mr. Strawasked the Secretary of State for Employment what, on a standardised basis, is the present rate of unemployment in the United Kingdom, France, West Germany and Italy, respectively.
§ Mr. TebbitThe seasonally adjusted standardised rates estimated by the OECD for November, are—United Kingdom 12.9 per cent., France 8.3 per cent., Germany 7.2 per cent. For Italy, the latest figure, for July, is 8.6 per cent.
§ Mr. StrawDo not these figures show that, despite attempts by the Secretary of State to fiddle the statistics, Britain remains, in unemployment terms, the sick man of Europe, if not of the world? Has not unemployment risen twice as fast in the United Kingdom as it has in the rest of the OECD countries since May 1979? Do not these figures and the fact that this Government have destroyed national income by 5½ per cent.—£14,000 million—since May 1979, compared with an increase of 12½ per cent. under the Labour Government, show the extent of the vicious and cold deception practised on the electorate in May 1979, when he and the Prime Minister promised that there would be more jobs and more co-operation?
§ Mr. TebbitNo, Sir.
§ Mr. Ralph HowellIs my right hon. Friend aware that the one country in the OECD that enjoys the lowest unemployment figures is Switzerland, where work is offered instead of unemployment benefit by the local authorities? May I urge my right hon. Friend to make a study of the system that operates in Switzerland?
§ Mr. TebbitThere are many differences between social attitudes in Switzerland and those in this country, and that may be one of them. The Government have produced a community programme that offers 130,000 employment opportunities to the long-term unemployed, and it appears that they will be taken up enthusiastically.
§ Mr. VarleyDoes the Secretary of State recall that immediately before the last general election the Prime Minister told the country that there was nothing inevitable about unemployment, with the clear indication that the Tory Government would bring unemployment down? Is it not clearly accepted by the Government that they will fight the next general election with record unemployment and that they will do nothing to bring it down before that day?
§ Mr. TebbitThe right hon. Gentleman has quoted my right hon. Friend correctly. There is nothing inevitable about unemployment. However, if, for example, workers in our car industry persistently, when given the same 873 equipment and the same working conditions, produce far less than their counterparts in Germany and on the rest of the Continent, unemployment will become inevitable.
§ Sir Kenneth LewisDoes my right hon. Friend agree that, apart from the unemployment that has been caused by the world recession and by bringing down inflation, we are now having increased unemployment because of our success in bringing in new technology? This is something that any Government, and I hope particularly this one, will have to take into account, because we have to deal with the new circumstances where new technology will get rid of jobs.
§ Mr. TebbitMy hon. Friend is right, in that new technologies can so raise production that fewer jobs are required in the particular enterprise. However, if my hon. Friend looks at the example of Japan, where the new technology has been embraced, he will find that unemployment is particularly low. If we consider the fact that we have just seen a couple of months of record retail sales, and a month in which we have had an all-time sales record for new cars, one has to return to the fact that the prime reason for our loss of jobs is that our firms have not been sufficiently good in satisfying the needs of the customer.