HC Deb 19 February 1980 vol 979 c129W
42. Mr. Leighton

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many jobs have been lost in manufacturing industry as a result of the increases of manufactured imports between 1974 and 1979.

Mr. Jim Lester

Between 1974 and 1979, the total numbers of employees in employment in manufacturing industries in Great Britain fell by about two-thirds of a million. Because it depends on many complex interacting factors, the contribution of the effects of increased manufactured imports to this fall could be produced only by simulation of a macroeconomic model incorporating a large number of speculative assumptions and at disproportionate cost.