8,000 Job losses in UK Manufacturing since Jan 1 2007
02/10/2007 | Posted by John Smith in UK stats
The manufacturing industry still has the highest rate of redundancies of all the sectors with 31.9 redundancies per 1,000 employees. Rates for the banking, finance and insurance sector have increased steadily since 1995 to 18.4 per 1,000 employees, a similar level to those for the distribution, hotels and restaurant sector.
These new redundancy estimates, combined with new figures on vacancies also published this month, provide a more comprehensive picture on changes in labour demand.
8,000 job losses across the UK manufacturing sector since Jan 1 2007
British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) 01/02/2007
These worrying figures show the fragile state of an industry which is facing a number of difficult challenges including dealing with the negative impact of interest rate rises in the past few months. These job cuts reinforce BCC concerns about the effect another rate rise will have on the UK economy, particularly amongst struggling sectors as manufacturing.
While the UK economy as a whole saw above average growth in Q4 2006, the UK manufacturing industry experienced a decline with figures from the BCC QES for Q4 2006 revealing a sharp fall in export orders and sales. Increasing wage costs, a strong pound and cheaper imports continue to put UK manufacturers under increasing pressure to either downsize or relocate.
David Frost, Director General of the BCC said: “2007 is looking ominous for the manufacturing sector. There has been a relentless decline in the number of jobs which it provides in the UK economy and this shows no sign of abating. Manufacturers are operating in a fragile environment - as well as operating within a complex and burdensome regulatory regime, UK businesses must now compete with rising interest rates, stronger sterling, and low-cost imports. Many are struggling in the competitive global environment with the result on local communities being the loss of jobs and financial resources in regions of the UK in which opportunities can often be hard to come by.” The two interest rate rises, which, were used to stem increasing inflationary pressures in the UK economy, have added to the difficulties that UK manufacturers face with the higher value sterling pound making it more challenging for them to compete on the domestic and international markets. For some this has prompted them to either relocate or shut up shop completely – taking jobs for locals with them.
“The impact of job losses on local communities is devastating - structural unemployment, ghost towns as young people move to find employment elsewhere, and the reduction in economic growth and output in certain regions; the list goes on.”
Total job losses of the following companies is 7,729.