European Community (Agricultural Employment)

HC Deb 22 June 1981 vol 7 cc24-5W

Mr. Best

asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list in the Official Report the percentage of the labour force of each member State of the European Community who were primarily engaged in employment in the agricultural sector in 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975 and 1980.

Mr. Peter Walker

Information is not available in the form requested. Estimates of the numbers of persons engaged in agriculture, forestry and fishing as a percentage of total civilian employment are shown as follows for 1960, 1965, 1970, 1975 and for 1979, the latest year for which the information is available for all member States:

	1960	1965	1970	1975	1979
United Kingdon	4.1	3.8	3.2	2.1	2.6
Ireland	37.3	32.0	27.1	24.1	19.7
Denmark	18.2	15.0	11.5	9.8	8.3
Greece	56.6	49.3	40.8	31.9	30.8

SourceCompiled from OECD Labour Force Statistics published 1973 and 1980 and OECD Economic Survey published in March 1981.