HC Deb 24 October 1978 vol 955 cc836-7W
Mr. Lawson

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will provide a table showing, for the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Holland and Belgium, the percentage of persons in civil employment engaged in (a) industry—comprising mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction and electricity, gas and water, (b) agriculture—including hunting, forestry and fishing, and (c) service industries—giving a breakdown where possible between public sector and private sector services, the countries to be arranged in descending order of the percentage employed in industry and the figures to relate to the latest year for which such figures are available.

Mr. Golding

The percentages of persons in civil employment engaged in (i) industry (ii) agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (iii) service industries are shown in table 1. The data relate to 1977 unless otherwise stated. International employment statistics do not identify the separate components of the public and private sector services. However, provisional figures are available for the United Kingdom from a special inquiry in June 1977, which are shown in table 2.

TABLE 1: PERCENTAGES OF CIVILIAN EMPLOYMEN BY SECTOR: 1977 (UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED)
Industry Agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing Services All civilian employment
West Germany 45.3 6.8 47.9 100.0
United Kingdom* 40.0 2.7 57.3 100.0
Belgium† 39.0 3.4 57.6 100.0
Italy 38.6 15.9 45.5 100.0
France† 38.1 10.8 51.1 100.0
Japan 35.3 11.9 52.8 100.0
Netherlands† 33.7 6.5 59.8 100.0
Canada 28.9 5.7 65.4 100.0
USA‡ 28.9 3.6 67.5 100.0
* Provisional.
† 1976.
‡ OECD Estimates.

Source: OECD—Labour Force Statistics.

TABLE 2: PERCENTAGE OF CIVILIAN EMPLOYMENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM ENGAGED IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECTOR SERVICES IN JUNE 1977
Public sector services 23.4
Private sector services 33.9
All service industries 57.3