§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for the principal industrial countries the amount by which the percentage increase in hourly earnings in manufacturing in 1978, and in the latest quarter for which figures are available, exceeded the corresponding increase in unit costs in manufacturing; and if he will give these figures for 1975 also.
§ Mr. Jim LesterThe available information is given in the following table. Caution is required in interpreting international comparisons of this type owing to differences in coverage and methods of compilation between countries, the most important of which are indicated in the footnotes.
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PERCENTAHE INCREASE ON A YEAR EARLIER FOR MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES IN: (a) Hourly earnings(1) (b) Wages and salaries per unit of output Difference: (a) minus (b) 1975 1978 Q2 1979 1975 1978 Q2 1979(2) 1975 1978 Q2 1979 United Kingdom(3) … 26 15 15(2) 29 13 10 —3 2 5 France(4) … 17 13 13 … … … … … … Germany (F.R)(5) … 9 5 6 7 3 —1 2 2 7 Italy(4) … 27 16 17 … … … … … … Japan(6)(7) … 12 7 7(2) 21 —2 —2 —9 9 9 United States(8) … 9 9 9 12 6 7 —3 3 2 Source: OECD—'Main Economic Indicators' Notes: …Not available (1) Average gross hourly earnings of male and female manual workers unless otherwise stated (2) Seasonally adjusted (3) Wages and salaries on a weekly basis (all employees) (4) Earnings are hourly wage rates (5) Labour cost figures (b) include mining (6) Monthly earnings (7) Labour cost figures (b) relate to the whole economy (8) Earnings figures relate to production workers only.