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Manufacturing Warning Amid Record Employment
By Alan Jones, Industrial Correspondent Scotsman.com
November 12, 2003
A record number of people in work was masking the “catastrophic” decline in manufacturing jobs, union leaders warned tonight.
The employment level has reached 28.15 million, the best since records began in 1984, after a 28,000 increase in the three months to September, new figures showed.
The number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell by 3,300 last month to 926,900, the lowest total since 1975.
But the number of manufacturing jobs fell by 121,000 to a record low of 3.48 million in the quarter to September compared with a year earlier.
Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, said: “No other sector offers the mix, new and skilled employment and export and salary opportunities that manufacturing does and all our research shows that these jobs, once lost, are never replaced and contribute to even greater economic and social inequalities.”
Tony Woodley, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union said: “With major government spending announcements due soon, relief for our people in manufacturing cannot come too quickly,” he said.
“Our economy is underpinned by manufacturing. The case for support becomes stronger each day but we believe the decline can and must be reversed.”
The Government said the new figures showed that the UK was a “world leader” in employment.
Minister for Work Des Browne said: “The UK has the highest employment rate and lowest unemployment rate of the big seven industrialised countries.
“We have achieved this through economic stability combined with policies to tackle the barriers that can prevent some individuals from finding work.”
The UK had pioneered the development of support to help the jobless, especially the most disadvantaged, said the minister.
The data from the Office for National Statistics showed that unemployment increased by 12,000 over the latest quarter to 1,481,000, although that figure was still 70,000 down on a year ago.
The unemployment rate was 5%, unchanged from the previous three months and one of the lowest in the developed world.
Doug Godden, the CBI’s head of economic analysis, said: “There is hope that the global economic revival will prevent this rise in UK unemployment becoming an ingrained trend.
“Job shedding should ease as the recovery feeds through, but this will depend upon the government not burdening employers with extra costs.”
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: “It’s good news that the rate of job losses in manufacturing appears to be slowing, but British industry still faces a difficult time, and we should be cautious about heralding the beginning of a new dawn.”
Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat work spokesman, said: “Claims of record employment levels cannot mask the continuing decline in the manufacturing sector.
“The Government has given up the fight to save manufacturing jobs. It has done nothing to help save the jobs and has left in the lurch the families dependent on those jobs to survive.”
Average earnings increased by 3.6% in the year to September, up by 0.2% from the previous month, today’s report showed.
Increases in the public sector continued to outstrip those in private firms at 5.6% compared with 3.1%.
But the public sector figure remained unchanged from the previous month while the increase in average earnings in private companies was up by 0.2% from August.
Institute of Directors chief economist Graeme Leach, said: “All the indications point to productivity growth being stronger in the private sector than the public sector, a result primarily of the strong growth in public sector employment.
“If public sector pay awards reflected productivity growth, that would be fine, but the reality is that they don’t. One has to wonder if the taxpayer is receiving value for money.”
There were 652,400 vacancies in the UK in the three months to October, up by 6,400 from the same period a year ago.
Other figures showed that 24,000 working days were lost due to industrial disputes in September, taking the total for the year to 693,000.
There were 15 stoppages in September involving 12,000 workers, compared with 10 in August.
The UK has a lower unemployment rate than most of its international competitors at 5% compared with 11.2% in Spain, 9.5% in France, 9.4% in Germany and 6.1% in the US.
Countries with lower jobless rates include Ireland at 4.7%, Austria (4.5%) and Holland (4.2%).
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