§ Mr. David Youngasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will give the percentage change in (a) investment and (b) productivity in manufacturing industry in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe information is as follows:
(a) Investment in manufacturing industry
per cent. 1976 -4.9 1977 +7.1 1978 +9.5 1979 +4.3 1980 -6.9 Investment is taken as capital expenditure plus assets obtained on finance lease from the service industries.
Source: British business 29 May 1981, p. 226.
(b) Productivity in manufacturing industry
There is no ideal measure available of productivity in the manufacturing sector. Output per head is the only official published series relating to productivity. This series—published in the Monthly Digest of Statistics, table 7.2—shows an increase in 1981 Q1.
178W
Output per head per cent. 1976 +5.4 1977 +1.5 1978 +0.9
Output per head per cent. 1979 +1.4 1980 -4.1 1981 Q1 *+1.8 * (compared with previous quarter) Output per head cannot fully reveal movements in productivity because it takes no account of change in hours worked. Output per man-hour would offer a better measure of productivity but fully comprehensive data on hours worked are not available. Figures of operative hours are collected and NIESR publishes a series on output per operative hour,—table 11, page 19, May 1981 Economic Review—for which the provisional January 1981 figure is at a record level following a rising trend in 1980. This suggests that on the shopfloor at least productivity has improved.
per cent. 1976 +4.2 1977 +0.4 1978 +1.5 1979 +2.3 1980 +0.6 1981 January *+1.4 * (compared with average for previous quarter).