§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were employed in general Government, excluding the Armed Forces, in 1970, 1978, and for the most recent year for which figures are available on a comparative basis in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States of America and France; and if he will show each of these figures as a percentage of total employment, excluding the unemployed.
§ Mr. HayhoeI have been asked to reply.
No later comparative information on general Government employment is available than was given in my reply of 28 January 1982 to my hon. Friend the Member for Norfolk, North (Mr. Howell). As was stated in that reply, because of institutional and other differences between countries, overall comparisons of total general government employment are of limited significance. Accordingly there are no plans to update the information published in the December 1980 issue of Economic Trends.