How does the UK’s employment record compare to the EU?

The UK’s employment rate has been increasing more quickly than most EU countries and all of the large economies in it

“Since 2010, we’ve created more jobs than than [sic] France, Spain, Ireland, The Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and Norway combined.”

Although correct for the first quarter of 2018, these figures do not correctly reflect the second quarter as based on available data. It refers to overall changes in employment, including people who move into and out of work.

The claim is correct if you compare the number of people in jobs during the first quarter of 2010 with the first quarter of 2018. Over that period the number of employed people aged 15 and over increased by about 3.4 million in the UK and by 3.3 million in those other European countries combined

More recent data for the second quarter of 2018 is available for most of these countries (with the exception of Ireland). Based on these figures it looks very unlikely that the claim will still be true comparing the second quarter of 2010 with 2018.

The employment rate (in this case, the percentage of people aged 15-64 in employment) is arguably a more helpful measure to use when looking at how the UK’s jobs market compares to other European countries.

In theory, using the number of total people in employment to talk about the job market can be misleading. That’s why using the employment rate is a better measure.

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