SCOTLAND has been the hardest hit part of the UK as hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs have disappeared since the Tories took power in Westminster, new research suggests.
The study from the GMB union found that some 200,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector had been lost since 2010 – 6.7% of the total.
Scotland has been the worst affected area, losing 15% of manufacturing jobs (31,300), followed by the east of England and Northern Ireland which both saw a reduction of around 14%, said the union.
In 2010, the UK supported 2.9 million manufacturing jobs but by 2022 that number had fallen to 2.7 million, the GMB said.
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB national officer, said: “The loss of almost 200,000 jobs is devastating for those workers – and their wider communities.
“Every job lost means a household income more stretched. In the worst cost-of-living crisis for a generation we need more decent, skilled jobs – not to shed them at this rate.
“Ministers must address this urgently or there could be worse to come.
“The global green jobs race could revolutionise UK manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs in fabrication for new wind, solar and nuclear, but this Government seems happy to let them all disappear overseas.”
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