§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish a table in the OFFICIAL REPORT showing the level of investment for each worker in British manufacturing industry in each of the last 10 years contrasting them with comparable figures for the USA, Japan and our EEC partners.
§ Mr. MeacherThe information is given in the following table but the figures should not be used for any precise comparisons because of all the differences in coverage and definition to which attention is drawn in the notes. There is also the basic difficulty that market exchange rates may not be satisfactory for converting investment figures to a common currency.
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MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY—INVESTMENT PER WORKER—1963–1972 (£ per head, current prices) United Kingdom U.S.A Japan France Germany Italy Netherlands Luxembourg Belgium Denmark Eire (a) (b) (1) (c) (2) (2) (3) (d) (e) 1963 … … 122 330 183 283 214 184 229 .. 222 217 159 1964 … … 138 385 202 304 230 156 283 .. 229 253 162 1965 … … 158 444 163 318 256 131 298 .. 261 284 198 1966 … … 166 503 191 346 257 150 347 .. 307 273 204 1967 … … 167 534 288 372 247 173 376 .. 321 297 211 1968 … … 181 599 402 440 278 221 445 .. 339 271 264 1969 … … 209 652 502 497 372 251 474 .. 386 347 320 1970 … … 239 687 555 569 490 308 623 .. 484 .. 358 1971 … … 272* 713 513 623 521 339 675 .. 508 .. .. 1972 … … 273 759 599 .. 537 364 703 .. .. .. .. * New employment series from 1971; 1971 figure on old basis = 254. . . Not available. Notes:
I. Because of the lack of official figures for investment in German manufacturing industry, investment per worker has been taken from an unofficial publication (see below). The employment figures in this publication are very much lower than those in the ILO yearbook and if the latter are used in conjunction with the same total investment, the figures of investment per worker would be much lower than given above, e.g. 1972 would be 411 £/head.
II. Other known differences between countries' investment and employment data are noted below. There are almost certainly other differences due to definitions, methods of compilation, etc.
III. All investment figures converted to £ sterling using average rates of exchange in each year.
Footnotes referring to investment:
(1) Includes fishing and quarrying of building materials, and construction.
(2) Includes mining and quarrying, construction, gas, electricity and water—employment figures cover same industries.
(3) Classified by user, not owner.
Footnotes referring to employment:
(a) Employment figures not consistent over period; major break due to change from National Insurance card count to Census noted at *.
(b) Sampling design revised from 1967; figures exclude Okinawa prefecture.
(c) Manufacturing and construction only—not consistent with investment figures.
(d) Man-years.
(e) Including persons working abroad, about 3½ per cent. of total labour force in 1971.
Sources:
Investment: National Accounts of OECD countries 1961–1972; OECD. Paris and National Income and National Expenditure; HMSO London.
Except Germany: "Deutsches Institut for Wirtschaftsforschug", Berlin 1973.
Employment: Yearbook of Labour Statistics, 1973; ILO, Geneva.
Exchange rate: Annual Abstract of Statistics, 1973; HMSO, London and International Financial Statistics; IMF. Washington.
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