The recession has cost 706,300 manufacturing jobs in the UK with an average 3,398 jobs lost per week

26 January 2012

Staffordshire with loss of 21,100 manufacturing jobs during the recession and stalled recovery tops the UK league for manufacturing job losses

In the UK as a whole the recession has cost 706,300 manufacturing jobs. That is an average of 3,398 jobs lost per week. In 2006/7 there were 3,546,100 employed in manufacturing industry in the UK. The latest figure shows employment of 2,839,800 in 2010/11. This fall is on top of the 1.25m fall between 1994/5 and 2006/7.

The number of workers employed in manufacturing in Staffordshire has fallen by 21,100 from 74,200 employed in 2006/7 to 53,100 employed in 2010/11. This puts Staffordshire top of the UK league for the area with the highest number of manufacturing job losses during the recession and the stalled recovery.

Next in the league for the fall in the number of manufacturing workers are: Worcestershire, 20,100; Kent, 19,800; Hampshire, 18, 600; Cheshire East, 17,700; Leeds, 16,100; Warwickshire, 16,100; Northamptonshire, 16,100; Birmingham, 15,900; and Hertfordshire 12,900. Set out in the table below are the details for the top 20 areas in the UK for the fall in manufacturing employment. Set out in a PDF below is the change in the numbers employed in manufacturing in 204 areas in the UK in the year to July 2006 to June 2007 compared with the year to July 2010 to June 2011.

In the West Midlands region the number of manufacturing workers has fallen by 119,000 from 426,000 workers employed in manufacturing in July 2006 to June 2007 to 307,000 in July 2010 to June 2011. This is the largest fall for any region in the UK. In the same period the fall was South East, 100,800; North West, 97,000; London, 73,200; Yorkshire and The Humber, 57,000; East Midlands, 55,600; East, 47,400; Scotland, 46,500; Wales, 40,300, North east , 38,500; South West, 24,600; Northern Ireland , 6,200. See Notes 2 to editors for the full details for all twelve regions.

All these figures come from a new GMB study of official data released by the ONS. See note 1 below for sources. Set out as a PDF at the foot of this release on the GMB website http://www.gmb.org.uk/ is the data for 204 areas in Great Britain. Also on the GMB website as PDFs at the foot of this release are 11 regional press released on this subject.

Table 1 Top 20 areas in UK for the loss of manufacturing jobs since 2006/7

Local council areas
		Jul 2006-Jun 2007	Jul 2010-Jun 2011	change
1	Staffordshire	74,200	53,100	-21,100
2	Worcestershire	57,700	37,600	-20,100
3	Kent	61,100	41,300	-19,800
4	Hampshire	83,400	64,800	-18,600
5	Cheshire East	36,500	18,800	-17,700
6	Leeds	49,300	33,200	-16,100
7	Warwickshire	47,400	31,300	-16,100
8	Northamptonshire	65,100	49,200	-15,900
9	Birmingham	56,200	43,300	-12,900
10	Hertfordshire	62,400	50,400	-12,000
11	Essex	70,800	59,100	-11,700
12	Sandwell	24,900	13,600	-11,300
13	Cumbria	38,800	27,800	-11,000
14	Somerset	41,400	30,500	-10,900
15	Oxfordshire	35,800	25,200	-10,600
16	County Durham	42,000	31,600	-10,400
17	Surrey	47,900	37,500	-10,400
18	Derbyshire	67,700	57,600	-10,100
19	Barnet	15,200	5,300	-9,900
20	Lancashire	80,900	71,200	-9,700

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary, said “The Downing Street led recession accelerated the haemorrhaging of jobs from UK manufacturing. In the UK as a whole the first four years of this recession has cost 706,300 manufacturing jobs. That is an average of 3,398 job losses a week.

This fall is on top of the 1.25m fall between 1994/5 and 2006/7 an average of 2005 job losses a week.

Governments since Thatcher, from both parties, have ignored warnings from GMB and others that this migration of manufacturing jobs is not sustainable. This “march of the makers” – two million of them in sixteen years- is the most tragic economic story from Britain in the last two decades.

Unless action is taken to support and develop manufacturing the economic future for this nation is bleak. Only the British state has enough strength and power to halt and reverse the decline. This strength and power must be mobilised without delay to support a GMB programme as follows:

The creation of a strategic investment bank that could raise large sums of money in the commercial markets backed by a smaller capital base provided by the government.

Increased support for medium-sized companies in the UK, and new ways to encourage small firms to grow so they can employ more people and supply big industry.

A smarter approach to procurement - other countries make a much better use of public money to boost their own industries - where every pound of public money in the UK is spent encouraging the development of a modern, highly skilled economy.”

Urgent action on skills to deal with the skills shortages plague the UK. Germany has many more apprentices and a long-established dual vocational system which puts the country in a much better place than the UK.

The creation of a fairer economic model - a UK version of the social market, with a stronger role for unions and employer organisations, to include the introduction of employee representatives on works councils or supervisory boards, as exists in Germany.

There should be a concentration of effort on high skill, high value manufacturing sectors - for example in the field of environmental technology - on those British companies most likely to succeed in the face of global competition.

UK manufacturing should be used as the supply chain in the multibillion pound capital investment programme needed to up-grade and modernise the UK's infrastructure.”

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to Central Lobby. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the Central Lobby service.

As such, Central Lobby does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.