§ 10. Mr. HainTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the change in the number of full-time workers in employment from February 1993 to the present.
§ Mr. OppenheimThe number of full-time workers in Great Britain rose by 29,000 between the winter 1992 and summer 1994 labour force surveys.
§ Mr. HainCan the Minister confirm that according to the labour force survey and other statistics provided by his Department, the fall in full-time unemployment—admirable of course—between March 1993 and September 1994 of 200,000 was matched by a rise in full-time employment of just 30,000? In other words, 170,000 full-time workers have disappeared from the dole queues into the twilight world of, at best, full-time work, or casual or part-time work; or just as likely on to income support and sickness benefit? Why does not he admit that the Government's employment policy is a total fraud?
§ Mr. OppenheimI have to say that I am with the Trades Union Congress on this. As the hon. Gentleman knows, there are two different measures of unemployment and employment. One is the claimant count, the other is the International Labour Organisation international standard labour force survey, which the 12 TUC said recently was "wholly reliable". If there were some great fiddling of the figures, one would think that the labour force survey total would differ significantly from the claimant count total. But the figures are almost exactly the same, which blows a huge hole in the Opposition's argument that the claimant figures are a fiddle.