Employment: New Jobs

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Monday 27th January 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Freud]

I hope that I made it very clear to noble Lords that this is a very widely spread recovery, that the north is doing very well and that the noble Baroness is misrepresenting the actual figures.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, with regard to some of the information that has already been cited, is it not exciting news that the Edinburgh economy is doing particularly well and employment levels in Scotland are also successful? Would my noble friend agree that this shows that, for Scotland, Liberal Democrat economic policies, of course made in partnership with friends on the Conservative Benches, are successful and are making a positive impact on the lives of people who are now in jobs?

[Lord Freud]

My Lords, we have a widely spread recovery, which is touching all the regions, as I said. To pick up a point that I may not have dealt with adequately, these are full-time jobs. More full-time jobs have been created over the past year than total jobs; in other words, we are reducing very slightly the number of part-time jobs, if that is the full-time equivalent. This is a widely spread recovery of jobs—long-term jobs, female jobs, regional jobs, young jobs. This is good news.