§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish in the Official Report figures showing the increase in earnings in (a) the manufacturing industry and (b) banking and finance from January 1980 to date compared with the appreciation of the exchange rate of the £ sterling.
§ Mr. LawsonThe latest available figures for average earnings relate to October 1980. Increases in earnings over362W a period less than a year do not cover a full set of annual settlements and so are not wholly comparable between sectors. Figures are therefore given for the year ended October 1980:
Percentage changes, October 1979 to October 1980 Average earnings Manufacturing +15.9 Insurance, banking and finance +20.0 Sterling effective exchange rate +13.0 The increase shown for manufacturing understates the underlying increase in average earnings as there was exceptional overtime working in October 1979 following the end of the national engineering strike. The underlying increase is estimated as about 17 per cent.