§ Sir Irvine PatnickTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the rate of youth unemployment in(a) the United Kingdom(b) Italy, (c) Spain, (d) Germany and (e) France; if he will give the EC average; and if he will make statement. [21366]
§ Mr. Angela KnightThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the chief executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Tim Holt to Sir Irvine Patnick, dated 21 March 1997:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to your recent question on the rate of youth unemployment in the United Kingdom and other EC countries.Estimates are available for the United Kingdom from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS uses the International Labour Office (ILO) definition of unemployment which is widely accepted and used for international comparisons. According to estimates from the autumn 1996 LFS 15.6 per cent of people aged 16–24 were ILO unemployed in the UK.European comparisons are published in the Eurostat annual publication Labour Force Survey Results. ILO unemployment rates for various age groups are shown on table 8 of the latest edition which is for 1995. This publication is available in the House of Commons Library.