Citation
(2001), "Back to basics", Work Study, Vol. 50 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2001.07950baa.007
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited
Back to basics
Back to basics
We tend to think of the USA as a modern, hi-tech economy. It is. But it has managed to retain enough elements of the old (manufacturing) economy to buffer it against the vagaries of the world's stock markets. Manufactured goods have an intrinsic value that many services cannot match – and this "value" provides a degree of stability. Engineering in the US is enjoying a boom period – and engineering represents everything from aerospace through electronic to automobiles and the basics of "bent metal". Engineering graduates receive multiple job offers and salaries are up – and many of these jobs are in the old "smokestack" industries. In the UK, we have always pretended that we cannot compete with the low wage, manufacturing economies of the Far East. Yet, the US seems to survive. What did we miss? Surely, not something to do with productivity?