JoeMercer'sWay
Well-Known Member
Damocles said:SWP's back said:As for the bit on manufacturing. Read this <a class="postlink" href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8c257da6-dfab-11de-98ca-00144feab49a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8c257da6-dfab ... ab49a.html</a>
Subscription only. Any chance of a copy/paste for us plebeians, my Lord?
Decline in manufacturing greater under Labour than with Thatcher
By Chris Giles, Economics Editor
The importance of manufacturing to the economy declined more rapidly under Labour administrations since 1997 than it did during the Margaret Thatcher era, according to a Financial Times study.
The big winners in the same period were bankers, estate agents and public sector workers, whose share of output increased under the Labour governments of Tony Blair, the former prime minister, and Gordon Brown, his successor. The findings about the state of the economy were uncovered during a study of data held by the Office for National Statistics.
Manufacturing accounted for more than 20 per cent of the economy in 1997, when Labour came to power critical of the country having too narrow an industrial base. But by 2007, that share had declined to 12.4 per cent.
Although the recession of the early 1980s dealt a permanent blow to the industrial heartlands, the relative devastation of manufacturing during the past 12 years has been almost three times faster.
Manufacturing also bore the brunt of output losses in the most recent recession, sending its share of the economy lower, to a little over 11 per cent.
The near halving of the importance of manufacturing to the economy over 12 years is in stark contrast to the reduction from 25.8 per cent to 22.5 per cent of output under the Conservative governments of the now Baroness Thatcher.
Labour ministers still cite the 1980s as the period when the economy changed.
Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, told the FT last week: "In the 1980s and 1990s, we as a country did not do enough to encourage manufacturing and this approach led to colossal economic damage."
As manufacturing has declined, other sectors have been on the rise. Under Labour, real estate has risen from 12.6 per cent of the economy to an estimated 16.2 per cent. Banks, building societies and other financial services have seen their share of output rise from 6.6 per cent to 9.1 per cent.
Health and education have gained importance as the government devoted greater resources to the sectors since 2000. Healthcare has increased its share of the economy from 6.2 per cent to an estimated 7.9 per cent this year, while education has risen from 5.3 per cent to 6.2 per cent.