New Jobs: EC Comparison (Hansard, 20 April 1988)

§ The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Lord Young of Graffham)
My Lords, according to the latest available figures, the United Kingdom's record of employment growth compares very favourably with the rest of the Community. Between 1983 and 1986 total employment here increased by over 900,000, which is substantially more than the total for the 11 other member states combined. Of the individual countries' increases, the largest—that for the Federal Republic of Germany—was only half as large as that recorded in the United Kingdom.

The Viscount of Oxfuird
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Perhaps he can tell us what impact the completion of the single European agreement in 1992 might have on these employment figures?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, the estimates which have been made so far as to the economic effect of the single market in Europe is that employment in Europe will increase by some 5 million. There will he some 5 million new jobs. It is the determination of the Government that as many of those jobs as possible should be within the United Kingdom.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords, will the noble Lord comment further on the figures that he has given in his original Answer. Will he split those figures in statistical terms between the creation of jobs for male heads of household, part-time jobs and self-employed jobs?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, if the noble Lord would care to put down a specific Question on that point I shall be more than happy to answer him. Of all the citizens of working age in the United Kingdom no less that 66 per cent. are in paid employment. Throughout the rest of the Community the figure is 58 per cent. In other words, we have 15 per cent. more of our citizens in jobs. Surely that is the point on which we should be congratulating ourselves and that is what we would wish to maintain.

A noble Lord
You have your mathematics wrong.

§ Lord Boyd-Carpenter
My Lords, is not my noble friend's hope that from 1992 onwards we shall continue our good record in comparison with our European friends very greatly dependent on the exercise of restraint in wage increases by all those concerned?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, it is not only wage constraints; we must also ensure that we make this country attractive for those who wish to invest in it, particularly in areas in the North and in Scotland.

§ Lord Mason of Barnsley
My Lords, is this not a question of the sort of jobs which are available? Is not the increase mainly in service jobs rather than manufacturing jobs? Can the noble Lord perhaps give us the figures? Is the Minister not further aware that we now have a balance of trade deficit in manufactured goods for the first time that one can remember? We are importing far more manufactured goods than we are exporting. We have plenty of waiters but not many production workers. If that trend continues, does it not bode ill for the nation?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, I am happy to assure the noble Lord, Lord Mason, that it bodes very well for the nation. The jobs we have are jobs which pay a salary or wage. They are the important jobs to have. The sort of jobs they are is very much a secondary matter.
I should remind all in your Lordships' House that in manufactured goods the United Kingdom exports more per capita than Japan. It so happens that we import rather more than most other countries. What is important is that the jobs of the future and the wealth creation of the future are coming from the service sector.
Lest the noble Lord believes that that has something to do with the present Government. I should point out that we have been losing manufacturing jobs month in and month out at a rate of about 10,000 per month every month since the middle of 1966. That is due to technology and the changing pattern of employment and is a pattern which has been followed by every other industrialised nation with the single exception of Japan, and today Japan is showing a fall in employment in manufacturing industries.

Viscount St. Davids
My Lords, perhaps the Minister will consider and deal with a difference in method which appears to have arisen between other European countries and ourselves, in that when it comes to new products they appear to be willing to help finance the introduction of these whereas in this country small firms are only given help if what they intend to do is research which has no direct commercial product in view. That is something which small firms are highly unlikely to do and therefore the help which is being given is only going to larger firms when it should be going to smaller firms.

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, I can assure the noble Viscount that we help those firms, through the Enterprise Initiative, to look at important concepts such as quality, design, marketing, manufacturing systems, and now information systems and financial management.
I think it is important to look at the economy as a whole. The United Kingdom is now in the midst of its eighth successive year of growth. It shows a record of which the whole of the Community should be envious. Our economy is growing, and I believe that that is strictly as a result of the prudent policies of this Government.

§ Lord Peston
My Lords, I have not looked at the figures recently but can the noble Lord tell the House why he chose the year 1983 as the base year? Is that an especially good year to throw light on the problem?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, no. I am happy to go hack even further, because the number of jobs has been rising since 1981. Before the noble Lord follows up with a supplementary question, I understand that we lost a considerable number of jobs between 1979 and 1981. The point is that in many industries we lost jobs but the actual amount manufactured did not change. I can do no more than remind the House of the example of BSC, which still produces roughly the same amount of steel today while employing less than one-third of the people it used to.

§ Lord Williams of Elvel
My Lords. I am sorry to press the noble Lord on this point, but does he not have in his brief a breakdown of job creation by male heads of households in the European Community and how we rate compared to the rest of the Community?

§ Lord Young of Graffham
My Lords, if I had that information, I should of course provide it. However, I am more than happy to write to the noble Lord. I think that perhaps the noble Lord overlooks the fact that when employment increases to the level that it has in the United Kingdom, and especially when we find jobs for women—on which only Denmark can challenge our record—then more of those jobs by their very nature have to be part time. They are the types of job that many of our citizens are in fact looking for.