Impact of manufacturing revealed in UK while Shropshire firms discuss performance

‘The True Impact of UK Manufacturing’, unveiled at MACH 2024 in Birmingham, shows the industry is worth £518billion and supports 7.3million UK jobs directly and across the supply chains and communities it operates in.

This represents nearly a quarter of total GDP (23 per cent) and far bigger than the direct contribution of 8.2 per cent that is usually quoted by economists.

Carried out by Oxford Economics and the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), the in-depth report also shows that ‘making things’ accounts for 34.5 per cent of all UK goods and services exports, whilst the median wage is £31,300 – 11 per cent higher than the national median wage.

MTA’s Chief Executive Officer, James Selka is now urging the sector to build on the report by exploring ways in which it can address the skills shortage and develop successful programmes, such as the High Value Manufacturing Catapult Centres, to increase wealth creation by commercialising more of the great ideas and innovations born in the UK.

“This is a fantastic insight into the true impact of manufacturing in the UK and reinforces what many of us already know – that industry is a far greater contributor to GDP and jobs than listed in national accounts,” he said. “Our report has been designed to take a ‘deeper dive’ and looks at the direct, indirect, and induced impacts of manufacturing, which is a far more comprehensive overview of what we make, the complex nature of our supply chains and the economic benefit gained from the spending of wages by those employed in our sector.”