The Industrial Strategy and Manpower Policy: Some Puzzles

Abstract

Introduction It is now part of the conventional wisdom that the success of the industrial strategy is vital because the UK “needs a healthy manufacturing industry”. Proposals have been made to allocate a substantial proportion of the additional revenues from North Sea oil and gas to domestic manufacturing capacity and to stimulate employment directly. But how are these allocative decisions to be resolved? Even if we accept the conventional wisdom of an industrial strategy, which industries and regions are to be the focus of public policy and why? What are the manpower implications of the industrial strategy? Proposals for more skilled labour cannot be divorced from industrial, locational and factor “mix” decisions. Potential conflicts exist between industrial and employment policy. Efforts to increase the competitiveness of UK manufacturing industry through increased investment and higher productivity will result in the substitution of capital for labour and hence job loss; at the same time, policy aims to increase employment in manufacturing! Not surprisingly, estimates of a “job gap” of some 2 millions by 1981 dominate the debate, although such forecasts usually fail to refer to the price dimension, especially assumptions about the set of relative and real wage rates.

Citation

Hartley, K. (1979), "The Industrial Strategy and Manpower Policy: Some Puzzles", Management Decision, Vol. 17 No. 3, pp. 256-264. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb001189