HL Deb 30 January 2001 vol 621 cc53-4WA
Earl Russell

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment's statement (in the Observer of 14 January) that "it used to be thought that the number of jobs in the economy was finite", but that "the more people available to work with the right skills, the more jobs are created", what research underpins this statement; and whether they will give references for any academic studies involved. [HL370]

Baroness Blackstone

There is a discussion of the view that there is a finite number of jobs, or the "lump of labour fallacy" as it is known, inUnemployment by Layard, Richard; Nickell, Stephen, and Jackman, Richard (1991), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

In addition, the House of Commons Education and Employment Committee undertook a study, Employability and Jobs: Is there a Jobs Gap? This was published as the fourth special report of the 1999–2000 Session and included a memorandum from the DfEE which set out the Government's position.

The noble Earl might also be interested in a more recent paper From Restart to New Deal in the United Kingdom by William Wells that was presented to an OECD conference on the public employment service in Prague in July 2000 (publication forthcoming).