10 Years of New Labour - Employment

Eurostat publish figures on the Labour Participation rate - that is, the percentage of those aged 15 to 64 who are employed. (Those who don't participate are made up of the unemployed, housewives, those who are ill and those who've taken early retirement). As before, the comparison is with other mature economies with a similar sized population.

Year  UK     USA    France  Germany Spain   Italy   Japan

1994  67.9%  72.0%  59.1%   64.7%   46.1%   51.4%   69.3%
1995  68.5%  72.5%  59.5%   64.6%   46.9%   51.0%   69.2%
1996  69.0%  72.9%  59.5%   64.1%   47.9%   51.2%   69.5%
1997  69.9%  73.5%  59.6%   63.7%   49.5%   51.3%   70.0%
1998  70.5%  73.8%  60.0%   63.9%   51.3%   51.9%   69.5%
1999  71.0%  73.9%  60.9%   65.2%   53.8%   52.7%   68.9%
2000  71.2%  74.1%  62.1%   65.6%   56.3%   53.7%   68.9%
2001  71.4%  73.1%  62.8%   65.8%   57.8%   54.8%   68.8%
2002  71.3%  71.9%  63.0%   65.4%   58.5%   55.5%   68.2%
2003  71.5%  71.2%  63.3%   65.0%   59.8%   56.1%   68.4%
2004  71.6%  71.2%  63.1%   65.0%   61.1%   57.6%   68.7%
2005  71.7%  71.5%  63.1%   65.4%   63.3%   57.6%   69.3%
                                                           

The Eurostat figures for the whole of Europe, are only available to 2005, once they update with 2006, I will add them to my table (ONS figures show that employment improved in the UK in 2006).

The UK shows steady improvement throughout. We go from a participation rate of 69.0% at the end of 1996, to 71.7% at the end of 2005, an improvement of 2.7%. Because these figures only look at those aged 15 to 64, they don't capture the increasing trend of those aged over 64 to work. The other "Anglo-Saxon" economy, the USA, shows a decline over time, which becomes pronounced when the conservative George Bush takes office. This is a warning to us, as many during the 2000 election assumed that the Clinton conditions would continue even without him. New Labour economics are of course modelled on Clinton's. The UK has been ahead of the USA since 2003.

The Japanese also stay stagnant, but all the Europeans improve their participation rates (albeit they are starting from a lower base). As ever the prize goes to Spain - they manage to improve their participation rate by a stonking 17.2% in just over a decade. They've caught up with France and Germany and the challenge over the next decade must be for them to see if catch up with the UK.


Previous articles in this series:
Economic Growth since 1997