HC Deb 26 January 1994 vol 236 c287W
Mr. Boyes

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will produce a table showing the working population of each EC country as a percentage of the total population for the latest figures available.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

The available information is as follows:

Total employment as a percentage of the population aged 15 to 64, 19911
Per cent.
Denmark 76
Portugal 71
United Kingdom 69
Germany 65
Nrtherlands 63
Luxembourg 61
France 60
Belgium 57
Italy 56
Greece 55
Ireland 52
Spain 49

Source: OECD, except United Kingdom (Employment Department).

1 1991 is the latest year for which comparable data are available.

Mr. Alex Carlile

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people in the United Kingdom are unemployed and are not receiving benefit; and if he will make a statement.

Miss Widdecombe

The latest estimates from the labour force survey for summer—June to August—1993 are that there were 1,099,000 people in the United Kingdom classified as unemployed on the internationally standard ILO measure of unemployment, but not claiming unemployment related benefits; these estimates include spring 1993 data for Northern Ireland. Conversely, there were 1,038,000 claimants that were not ILO unemployed, so that the level of unemployment on the internationally standard definition—2,981,000—was only 61,000 higher, not seasonally adjusted, than the level shown by the claimant count for the equivalent period—2,919,000.