HC Deb 15 October 2001 vol 372 cc841-3W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many manufacturing jobs have been lost since May 1997. [7758]

Ruth Kelly

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. John Bercow, dated 15 October 2001: As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question about the number of manufacturing jobs lost since May 1997 (7758). The table below shows the number of employee jobs in manufacturing for May 1997 and July 2001.

UK Thousands1
May 1997 4,160
July 2001 3,817
Change between May 1997 and July 2001 -343 (-8.2%)
1 Seasonally adjusted

These estimates are based on the results of regular sample surveys of employers which count the number of employee jobs. The data are published in Statbase on the National Statistics website ww.statistics.gov.uk./statbase/tsdataset.asp?vlnk=342 under series identifier YEJL.