asked the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the per-

	United Kingdom	Belgium	Denmark	West Germany	France	Ireland	Italy	Luxembourg†	Netherlands
1976
February	+65	+48	+12	+14	+27	+22	*	+87	+19
March	+60	+42	0	+6	+24	+20	*	+237	+15
April	+52	+37	-7	0	+18	+18	+4	+252	+9
May	+50	+35	-6	-6	+15	+14	*	+222	+9
June	+54	+33	-3	-8	+10	+11	*	+228	+10
July	+48	+30	+17	-9	+6	+12	+20	+164	+8
August	+31	+28	-5	-9	+6	+10	*	+194	+10
September	+27	+20	-4	-11	+1	+8	*	+22	+6
October	+20	+10	+5	-11	+1	+4	+11	-5	-2
November	*	+16	+2	-12	+2	+4	*	*	-2
December	+14	+14	+7	-11	+3	*	*	*	-5
1977
January	+11	+16	+10	-8	+5	*	*	*	-5
February	+9	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
* Figures not available.
† The large percentage increases for Luxembourg reflect changes from very low levels of unemployment in 1975.

These figures are based on the countries' official unemployment series as published in OECD Main Economic Indicators, supplemented by labour attaché reports—except United Kingdom. These series are not directly comparable owing to national differences in coverage, concepts of unemployment and methods of compilation.