§ 11. Mr. StevensTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many representations he has received following the publication of the labour force survey; and if he will make a statement on its conclusions.
§ Mr. FowlerThe 1988 labour force survey was published in March and since then I have received a number of communications on it.
The survey results confirm that there has been a continued and strong growth in employment. Between spring 1987 and spring 1988 employment increased by 682,000, of which 60 per cent. was among full-time employees; self-employment grew by 160,000, continuing the upward trend of recent years and unemployment fell by more than ½ million and remained at a lower level than the monthly unemployment count.
The survey confirmed the picture of rapidly falling unemployment recorded by the monthly unemployment count.—f [Interruption.]
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. There seems to be an undercurrent of discussion. Hon. Members should kindly listen.
§ Mr. StevensI thank my right hon. Friend for that substantial reply. In the Employment Gazette did my right hon. Friend notice the figures that showed that 4.8 million people of working age received training and education courses in 1986 compared to 2.1 million in 1984? Does my right hon. Friend agree that those figures, taken with the labour force survey, the International Labour Organisation and OECD estimates of unemployment, show that the claims about unemployment and training levels made by Opposition Front-Bench spokesmen to be just mischievous nonsense?
§ Mr. FowlerYes. My hon. Friend is right. What the labour force survey reveals above all is that the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher) has been fiddling the unemployment figures upwards for months.
§ Mr. LeightonHow many people are now doing more than one job? I understand that more than 1 million people have either two or three jobs and that they are counted in the figures two or three times.
§ Mr. FowlerI do not have the full figures on that, but I shall seek to get them for the hon. Gentleman. However, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that the labour force survey shows that 60 per cent. of the growth in employment is accounted for by full-time work and that in the past 12 months 75 per cent. of new jobs created have been full-time.
§ Mr. Bill WalkerDoes my right hon. Friend agree that the information coming from the labour force survey shows very clearly how much Scotland has benefited from the policies of this Government and indeed, that there are more people in work today? In particular, the growth in high technology, the new satellite industry, leisure, recreation and tourism shows that the Scottish economy is in good shape.
§ Mr. FowlerYes, indeed. There has also been a very substantial amount of inward investment into Scotland, and into other parts of this country, which has helped 178 create new jobs. It has been attracted into this country by the strength of the economy and the policies of this Government.