Employment: Job Creation

Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean Excerpts

Wednesday 16th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

We have seen today a series of records on employment—but the most important part of those is how we are beginning to see real inroads among the people who have been excluded from the economic life of the country. The number of children in workless households and the number of workless households are the lowest on record, and the number of workless households in the social rented sector is the lowest on record. Lone parent employment is at a record high—and an important measure, economic inactivity, is now at the lowest rate since 1991.

[Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean (Lab)]

The Minister gave us the figures in raw terms as 350,000 in the UK and 1.8 million across the EU as a whole, but can he give us the figures as a percentage of the population of working age?

[Lord Freud]

I shall have to write to the noble Baroness, as that is quite a detailed question.