Latest employment figures cold comfort for UK leather workers
Last week’s announcement by the UK government that unemployment had fallen to its lowest level since October 1975 was tempered by the fact that out of all the manufacturing sectors to have seen job losses, leather, textiles and clothing was the worst hit.
According to Office of National Statistics figures, between the second quarters of 2000 and 2001 the sector lost 26,000 jobs – the total figure declining from 290,000 to 264,000. Within the leather and leather goods (including footwear) manufacturing subsector, the situation was proportionately worse, with the total number of jobs declining by 3,500 from 27,500 to 24,000. Though UK average earnings rose by 4.8% during July, a total of 110,000 manufacturing jobs were lost during the second quarter of 2001.
