Manpower and Skill Implications of Technical Change in the Engineering Industry

Three serious threats face the level of employment in the UK economy: declining international competitiveness; the manpower implications of technical change; and demographic factors outside the scope of this article. Preliminary findings of a research programme at the Scienee Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, are presented in this contribution. The research was designed to improve understanding of relationships between success in international competition, technical change and patterns of manpower and skill deployment in the UK engineering industry.