§ Mr. Spenceasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average cost to public funds of the creation of a new industrial job.
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§ Mr. TebbitIt is not possible to make any sensible estimate of the average cost to public funds of the creation of a new industrial job. Many new industrial jobs come into being independently of public expenditure. Others come into being as the direct or indirect consequence of public expenditure, which, however, may have other indirect effects upon competitiveness, and hence upon jobs; and yet others are the indirect consequence of reductions in public expenditure. Estimation for any of these cases would require so many uncertain assumptions that the result would have no meaning.