UK Manufacturing Climbs Global Rankings

UK manufacturing continued its climb up the global rankings as growth returned in 2016 according to facts and figures published today by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation and Santander.

The 2017 manufacturing statistics show the UK is now the 8th largest industrial nation with an annual output now worth US$249bn. Climbing one position in the global rankings is a fantasitic result in the post-Brexit world.

Manufacturing currently generates 44% of total UK exports and the data around UK employment is equally impressive, with 2.6million people working within the manufacturing sector across the country.

The largest individual sector is food and drink (16%) while the chemicals and pharmaceuticals and transport sectors both account for 14% of output each. It is these two sectors which also head up the manufacturing innovation league table, with ONS figures revealing that pharmaceuticals accounts for 34.4% of UK innovation, and transport 33%.

As a sector, the manufacturing good news story continues into comparable pay rates, offering higher wages than other sectors with highly paid, highly skilled jobs.  Average earnings have increased from £31,489 to £32,047, still sitting well above the take home totals from services (+£4,499) and some £3,748 more than the whole economy average pay.