HC Deb 24 October 1978 vol 955 cc838-40W
Mr. John Moore

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for the EEC as a whole, for each present member State of the EEC, the USA and Japan in, (a) each year since 1970 and (b) each quarter since 1974, the percentage unemployment rate

Mr. Golding,

pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 26th July 1978 Vol. 954, c. 573–4],gave the following information:

As the Statistical Office of the European Communities has revised some of the figures used for my original reply, I give below the full series of data requested; the figures from 1974 supersede those shown in my original reply. The figures are based on national definitions and are not comparable between countries owing to differences in the concept of unemployment, coverage and method of compilation.

UNEMPLOYMENT PERCENTAGE RATES
Germany France Italy Netherlands Belgium Luxembourg United Kingdom Ireland Denmark Total EEC United States Japan
1970 … 0.6 1.3 4.6 1.0 2.2 0.0 2.5 5.8 1.0 2.1 4.9 1.2
1971 … 0.7 1.6 5.0 1.3 2.2 0.0 3.2 5.6 1.2 2.5 5.9 1.2
1972 … 0.9 1.8 5.1 2.3 2.8 0.0 3.5 6.5 1.2 2.7 5.6 1.4
1973 … 1.0 1.8 4.9 2.3 2.9 0.0 2.5 6.0 0.7 2.5 4.9 1.3
1974 … 2.2 2.3 4.8 2.9 3.2 0.0 2.4 6.3 2.0 2.9 5.6 1.4
1975 … 4.2 3.9 5.2 4.1 5.3 0.2 3.8 8.7 4.6 4.3 8.5 1.9
1976 … 4.1 4.3 5.5 4.4 6.8 0.3 5.3 9.8 4.7 4.9 7.7 2.0
1977 … 4.0 4.9 6.4 4.3 7.8 0.6 5.7 9.7 5.8 5.3 7.1 2.0
1974—Q1 … 2.3 2.1 5.0 3.0 2.9 0.0 2.5 6.3 1.1 2.9 5.5 1.6
Q2 … 1.8 1.8 4.6 2.4 2.6 0.0 2.2 6.0 1.0 2.6 5.1 1.2
Q3 … 2.0 2.1 4.6 2.7 3.5 0.0 2.5 6.0 1.8 2.8 5.5 1.3
Q4 … 3.1 3.2 4.9 3.4 3.8 0.1 2.6 6.9 3.9 3.4 6.1 1.4
1975—Q1 … 4.5 3.6 5.2 4.1 4.3 0.1 3.1 8.3 4.9 4.1 9.1 2.1
Q2 … 4.0 3.4 5.1 3.7 4.5 0.1 3.3 8.5 4.2 4.0 8.7 1.8
Q3 … 4.0 3.9 5.2 4.1 6.0 0.1 4.3 8.7 4.3 4.4 8.3 1.7
Q4 … 4.4 4.7 5.5 4.5 6.4 0.4 4.6 9.4 5.1 4.8 7.8 1.9
1976—Q1 … 5.1 4.5 5.7 4.8 6.3 0.3 5.1 10.1 5.2 5.2 8.5 2.4
Q2 … 3.9 3.9 5.4 4.1 6.0 0.2 5.0 9.7 4.1 4.6 7.4 2.0
Q3 … 3.6 4.0 5.5 4.4 7.4 0.2 5.7 9.6 4.3 4.8 7.6 1.9
Q4 … 3.9 4.8 5.6 4.4 7.3 0.4 5.3 9.8 5.2 5.0 7.3 1.8
1977—Q1 … 4.6 4.8 6.1 4.6 7.2 0.5 5.5 10.2 6.1 5.4 8.2 2.3
Q2 … 3.8 4.5 5.9 3.9 6.9 0.4 5.4 9.6 5.4 5.0 6.9 2.0
Q3 … 3.7 5.0 6.7 4.4 8.4 0.6 6.2 9.4 5.4 5.5 6.8 1.9
Q4 … 4.0 5.4 6.8 4.4 8.5 0.8 5.8 9.4 6.2 5.5 6.2 1.9
1978—Q1* … 4.6 5.1 7.2 4.5 8.2 0.9 5.8 9.8 7.5 5.8 6.8 2.5
* Provisional.
Sources:
(1) EEC countries: Statistical Office of the European Communities. The rates are partially standardised and based on national statistics of registered unemployed expressed as percentages of the civilian labour force
(2) United States and Japan: OECD Main Economic Indicators. The rates are obtained by expressing the number of unemployed as percentages of the civilian labour force obtained from labour force surveys