Historic job market performance over-shadowed

Commenting on the labour market figures out (Wed 13 Aug) Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, said:

The historic performance of the labour market under the current government is being over-shadowed by the failure to regenerate the manufacturing sector.

Industry is losing thousands of skilled workers due to global competition. This will continue until the government takes bolder steps towards building a business environment in which the UK competes on quality and innovation, rather than purely cost.

Notes
''Shifting to the high road'', a TUC report on UK competitiveness published yesterday (Tuesday) is available at: http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-6956-f0.cfm

''Things have got better'', a TUC comparison of labour market performance five years either side of the 1997 general election, published last week, is available at: