§ Mr. Craigenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employees are engaged in the private, public and co-operative sectors of the economy as compared with 1979–80; and what are the comparable numbers of self-employed in each year.
§ Mr. BrittanThe available information is as follows:
(thousands) mid 1979 mid 1982 Private sector employees 15,975 14,354 Public sector employees 7,444 7,036 Self employed 1,856 * * Not available. No separate information is available for the co-operative sector which is included in the private sector estimates. No reliable estimates are yet available on the number of self-employed in 1982; published estimates of total employed labour force assume no change in self-employment between 1979 and 1982.