Manufacturing sector has seen more productivity growth than services, says ONS
PERCEPTIONS THAT manufacturing is disappearing from the UK are wide of the mark, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Despite the number of workers employed falling significantly since the late 1970s, total manufacturing output is now actually slightly higher, said the ONS.
It has declined in relative size, though, as other sectors have grown more quickly. Its share has fallen from 36 per cent of the economy in 1948 to around 10 per cent in 2013, the ONS added.
Productivity in the sector has risen by around 2.8 per cent a year since 1948, compared with 1.5 per cent in the service industry, according to chief economist Joe Grice.