HC Deb 28 February 1991 vol 186 c570W
Mr. Leighton

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the change in unemployment in 1990 for(a) the European Community as a whole and (b) the United Kingdom.

Mr. Jackson

Using the latest available internationally comparable figures from the Statistical Office of the European Community (SOEC), in December 1990 the unemployment rate for the EC as a whole was 8.4 per cent., down 0.1 percentage points on a year earlier. This compares with a rate of 7 per cent. in December 1990 for the United Kingdom, up 0.7 per cent. on a year earlier.