Assembly line roles responsible for much of the growth of employment in the industrial sector over the past five years, say researchers

Britain’s manufacturing recovery from the financial crash is built on an expansion of low-skilled jobs, according to a report that dents the sector’s modern, hi-tech image.

The findings show that since 2011, far from being the source of new jobs in research and development, the manufacturing sector has suffered a “fresh era of decline” as it relies on an expansion of assembly line roles in industries from drug making to food processing.

Output has “barely risen” in the past five years despite a 5% increase in the number of jobs created, the report found, revealing that the driving force of year-on-year productivity improvements have eluded the sector.

The report by the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute highlights the uphill task faced by the government as it seeks to develop an industrial strategy and rebalance the economy towards manufacturing exports.

Some large manufacturers have expanded their research facilities in the UK, notably Dyson, the household appliance maker, which recently expanded its Wiltshire headquarters to house more than 450 extra engineers.

But many have persevered with outdated factories and coped with higher output by employing more staff, which means output per hour remains flat.

In the wake of the referendum vote, a string of car companies and other major firms have hinted that they could review their investments in the UK, adding to concerns that manufacturing faces extra barriers to trade at a time when the sector is already weak.

Dr Craig Berry, the author of the report, said: “The growth in manufacturing jobs in the last five years, however limited, is to be welcomed. British manufacturing is not dead, but the sector is in great peril.

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“There are few signs of sustainable growth in advanced manufacturing industries, and we now seem to be witnessing a new phenomenon whereby the UK manufacturing sector is creating lower-skilled jobs without enhancing its productive capacity. This is a different kind of manufacturing decline than we have experienced in the past, but it is a decline nevertheless,” he said.

The UK’s productivity rate, which measures output per hour, has only recently returned to its pre-crisis level. Official figures for 2015 show the UK’s average performance across all industries was 27, 30 and 35 percentage points lower than in France, the US and Germany respectively.

The number of jobs in manufacturing has slumped from 7m in 1971 to 3.8m in 2001 and little more than 2.7m this year. It means that fewer than 10% of the UK’s almost 32 million-strong workforce works in the sector, though servicing jobs that rely on manufacturing are not included in the figures.



Over 5m manufacturing jobs have been lost in the UK since the 1970s Over 5m manufacturing jobs have been lost in the UK since the 1970s

It has long been assumed that the rapid expansion of low and semi-skilled jobs in the recovery since 2011 have been confined to service industries.

However, the report shows that much of the expansion in manufacturing has also relied on workers filling jobs with .



The report said that from the 1970s to the 1990s, manufacturers overhauled their factories to improve productivity, cutting thousands of jobs and increasing output.



The pharmaceutical industry expanded production by 60% between 1991 and 2001. Computer makers enjoyed a 53% rise in output over the same period. This pattern began to shift in the 2000s, with job numbers tumbling by a third, and output declining by around 4%.

Manufacturing output in high-tech industries has fallen by 95% since the 1950s Manufacturing output in high-tech industries has fallen by 95% since the 1950s

Drug makers have been among the worst affected since 2011 following a 7.4% drop in output. Chemical production, which fell by almost 7% between 2001 and 2011, has barely recovered following a 1.8% expansion of output in the past five years.



Output growth in cars and trucks has remained stable at a relatively high level since the 2000s, leaving the industry as almost the only major employer still to be investing and improving productivity.

Berry said: “Theresa May has promised a renewed focus on industrial policy, but it is not clear that her agenda will differ substantively to that of the previous government. What is required is an industrial strategy which ensures all economic policy functions are focused on supporting sustainable industrial development. Challenging the primacy of the Treasury in economic policy-making will be central to this endeavour.”