Is it true that 3 million jobs depend on trade with the EU?
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  • This old chestnut continues to raise its head despite having been discredited long ago. The figure arose from a study by the National Institute of Economic & Social Affairs in 1999. The report calculated that 'three million jobs' are associated with trade with the EU.

  • This report has been repeatedly misrepresented by various people, including former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg MP, who said that three million jobs are "at risk" if we left the EU. The Institute's Director, Martin Weale, has repudiated the claim describing the misuse of the report for propaganda purposes as "pure Goebbels". These jobs depend on the continuation of trade - not on continued EU membership.

  • Using similar assumptions that arrived at the figure of three million jobs in the UK being associated with EU trade, we can arrive at a figure of 5 to 6.5 million jobs in the EU being associated with trade with the UK. Millions of jobs elsewhere also depend upon trade with Europe, for example in China, India and Japan, but those countries do not find it necessary to join the EU in order to trade with Europe.

    (See: "The EU Jobs Myth")