§ Baroness Miller of Hendonasked Her Majesty's Government:
In light of the report that unemployment in Germany has now reached the level it was in 1932 due to increasing uncompetitiveness influenced by social on-costs, what steps they are taking to ensure that a similar situation does not arise in the United Kingdom. [HL573]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Hollis of Heigham)The United Kingdom has one of the strongest and flexible labour markets in the world. Continued macroeconomic stability combined with active labour market policies, providing appropriate help and support through programmes like the New Deal, have all contributed to historically low levels of unemployment.
This has resulted in the United Kingdom achieving the best combination of employment and unemployment of the major industrialised countries 23WA with employment currently at its highest ever level at 28,440,000. Unemployment on the other hand is at its lowest level for nearly 30 years. Currently, the number of people unemployed on the ILO definition is 1.39 million. On the claimant count it is 833,200.