Is Britain's Industry History

By Alan Jones, PA Industrial Correspondent

Britain used to be known as the workshop of the world - but the country's industrial landscape has changed dramatically.

Towns are now more likely to rely on a call centre or supermarket for jobs than on a factory.

The number of manufacturing jobs has been falling steadily since Labour came to power in 1997, sparking calls from employers and unions for Government help.

New figures released tomorrow are expected to show that a million manufacturing jobs have been lost since 1997.

About 3.2 million people now work in manufacturing, the lowest number since comparable records began in 1978, and there is little sign of the trend being reversed.

Factories have been closing or cutting jobs with depressing regularity over the past few years, often causing knock-on redundancies in service firms.

The dissolution of the once-booming sector has led to complaints from companies that the UK has become less compebreastive in the face of strong growth in countries including India and China.

Some blame taxation and tough regulations for stifling progress and expansion, while others bemoan the poor state of workers' skills.

Unions have been pressing the Government to be more interventionist and proactive in helping firms, complaining that the UK gives less support to industry than any other European country.

The problem has been made worse by laws which make it easier to sack workers in Britain than elsewhere in Europe, unions believe.

Boosting workers' rights and business investment at the same time would go a long way to arrest the decline, according to unions.

They also point out that governments in France, Germany, Italy and Spain have all given more aid to manufacturers than the UK in recent years.

Industries including coal mining, shipbuilding, steelmaking and train building provide a fraction of the jobs they used to a few decades ago.

Look further back through history to a time when British-manufactured goods dominated world trade, most mbutt-produced items were built efficiently and compebreastively in this country.

The commercial and financial power Britain enjoyed in the 19th Century led to its reputation as the workshop of the world.

The Government has defended its record in supporting manufacturing since 1997, arguing that subsidies are not the way forward.

And ministers have pointed out that for every manufacturing job lost in the UK over the past few years, two new jobs had been created.

The figures do look impressive. There are more than 28 million people in work, the highest since records began in 1971. The number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits is down to about 800,000, the lowest rate for 30 years.

But as unions have stressed, a job in a factory often supports work elsewhere and usually involves better skills and pay than in the service sector.

Many of the new posts created in recent years have been in supermarkets, hotels and call centres.

And manufacturers are moving production overseas to cut costs. Even successful businessman James Dyson, who yesterday unveiled his latest vacuum cleaner, switched manufacturing from the UK to Malaysia a few years ago, with the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: "Industry's failure to invest and modernise in the face of international compebreastion has got the manufacturing sector into serious trouble that continues to cost 100,000 jobs a year."

Only 10% of the working population are employed by the manufacturing industry, compared to 33% 40 years ago.

The problem was illustrated by the Engineering Employers' Federation, which represents manufacturing firms across the UK.

An official from the federation contacted two firms in the West Midlands to ask if they wanted to be quoted in a report about what industry wanted from the Budget - but they had both gone into administration.