HC Deb 17 January 1992 vol 201 c652W
Mr. Meacher

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the level of unemployment in the original EC Six countries as a whole each year since 1962, in the EC Nine as a whole after 1973, and in the EC Twelve as a whole since 1986, both in numbers and as a percentage of their total work force.

Mr. Jackson

The following two tables provide the extent of the readily available information:

  1. (i) estimates of the annual average numbers of unemployed for the years 1983 to 1990 produced by the Statistical Office of the European Community (SOEC). Comparable estimates of numbers unemployed are not available on a monthly basis;
  2. (i) internationally comparable unemployment rates produced by SOEC from 1983–1990. Similar standardised rates, produced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), are available from 1975. These have been provided for the years 1975 to 1982.