Number of UK manufacturing workers rises

The number, albeit modest, underpins much other official and anecdotal evidence of the revival in fortunes of an industry all but abandoned as a lost cause a decade ago and should further boost confidence in a sector still lacking investment. The increase is all the more remarkable given the inexorable trend towards achieving higher productivity per capita through the introduction of automation and ever leaner manufacturing operations. The total number of jobs in manufacturing as at December 2010 was 2.549 million, up from 2.535 million in the previous quarter although there remained 60,000 (2.3%) fewer manufacturing jobs than a year ago. Commenting on the new labour market statistics, EEF senior economist Jeegar Kakkad said: "By adding 14,000 jobs in the fourth quarter of last year, manufacturers have shown they can be a source of both jobs and investment to an economy in need of rebalancing. However, ever mindful of not wanting to induce government complacency so close to a budget, EEF added that "many of these jobs will have been temporary or agency workers that firms will hope to convert to permanent staff if the recovery translates into sustained growth. But even as firms seek to take on workers to meet rising demand, skill shortages are already holding firms back and vacancies are up by 33% since last year." Chris Williamson, a director and chief economist at Markit said he was very encouraged at the jobs growth, driven by export performance, adding that he expected it to continue into the yet to be published figures for January and February.