The latest job losses announced by 3M today may be just the tip of the iceberg for the Welsh economy.
Since the last Assembly election , I have estimated that at least 3700 jobs in the manufacturing sector have been lost due to closures (and these are just the major announcements to the press).
Yes there are new jobs coming to Wales but, in the main, they are not well paid manufacturing jobs. They are jobs that have been dependent on the consumer boom both in retail and financial services.
What will now happen during the economic slowdown which, I believe, will take at least 18 months to recover from?
Will a business like Amazon suffer in any downturn or benefit as people look for cheaper deals on the internet? Will firms like Picture Finance lose out under the current credit crunch or increase their business as high street banks turn away customers? Will US firms - which make up the largest proportion of inward investors - now retract back to their own country due to recessionary pressures at home.
I will write on this later this week when I have had time to consider some of the salient facts in more detail and whether there are any silver linings for the Welsh economy.
However, here is the list of closures in the manufacturing sector in Wales since the last Assembly election.
Note that they are not concentrated in one part of Wales but are in every region.
2007
MAY
Corus, Llanwern – 212 Jobs
Aykroyd and Sons, Bala – 66 jobs
JUNE
Graphoprint, Flintshire – 170 jobs
Cranberry Foods, Monmouth – 400 jobs
JULY
Steadtler, Pontyclun, 150 jobs
Corus, Trostre – 94 jobs
Quinton Hazell Automotive, Mochdre – 120 jobs
SEPTEMBER
Carrington Wire Limited (CWL), Cardiff – 120 jobs
J.R. Freeman, Cardiff – 184 jobs
Rizla, Trefforest – 134 jobs
OCTOBER
Cooper Standard Automotive, Maesteg – 215 jobs
Dolgarrog Aluminium, Conwy – 170 jobs
Woodhead Connectivity, Ebbw Vale - 215 jobs
NOVEMBER
Therma-Tru UK, Nantgarw – 154 jobs
Orion Electric, Port Talbot – 95 jobs
DECEMBER
Alphasteel, Newport – 400 jobs
2008
JANUARY
Arquest, Holywell - 85 jobs
Keating Group Ltd, Mold – 90 posts
Paramount Pizza Company, Deeside – 60 jobs
FEBRUARY
Cameo Sofa Company, Pontypridd – 156 jobs
MARCH
Remploy, Pontypridd – 79 jobs
Hanson, Caernarfon – 50 jobs
APRIL
JCB Transmissions, Wrexham – 30 jobs
Eastman Chemical Company, Llangefni – 65 jobs
Avon Inflatables, Llanelli – 85 jobs
3M, Gorseinion – 185 jobs
UPDATE: It would seem that we have breached 4,000 manufacturing jobs lost with announcements today of 190 jobs lost at Fenmarc in Wrexham and 160 jobs at Kimball in Bridgend.
Since the last Assembly election , I have estimated that at least 3700 jobs in the manufacturing sector have been lost due to closures (and these are just the major announcements to the press).
Yes there are new jobs coming to Wales but, in the main, they are not well paid manufacturing jobs. They are jobs that have been dependent on the consumer boom both in retail and financial services.
What will now happen during the economic slowdown which, I believe, will take at least 18 months to recover from?
Will a business like Amazon suffer in any downturn or benefit as people look for cheaper deals on the internet? Will firms like Picture Finance lose out under the current credit crunch or increase their business as high street banks turn away customers? Will US firms - which make up the largest proportion of inward investors - now retract back to their own country due to recessionary pressures at home.
I will write on this later this week when I have had time to consider some of the salient facts in more detail and whether there are any silver linings for the Welsh economy.
However, here is the list of closures in the manufacturing sector in Wales since the last Assembly election.
Note that they are not concentrated in one part of Wales but are in every region.
2007
MAY
Corus, Llanwern – 212 Jobs
Aykroyd and Sons, Bala – 66 jobs
JUNE
Graphoprint, Flintshire – 170 jobs
Cranberry Foods, Monmouth – 400 jobs
JULY
Steadtler, Pontyclun, 150 jobs
Corus, Trostre – 94 jobs
Quinton Hazell Automotive, Mochdre – 120 jobs
SEPTEMBER
Carrington Wire Limited (CWL), Cardiff – 120 jobs
J.R. Freeman, Cardiff – 184 jobs
Rizla, Trefforest – 134 jobs
OCTOBER
Cooper Standard Automotive, Maesteg – 215 jobs
Dolgarrog Aluminium, Conwy – 170 jobs
Woodhead Connectivity, Ebbw Vale - 215 jobs
NOVEMBER
Therma-Tru UK, Nantgarw – 154 jobs
Orion Electric, Port Talbot – 95 jobs
DECEMBER
Alphasteel, Newport – 400 jobs
2008
JANUARY
Arquest, Holywell - 85 jobs
Keating Group Ltd, Mold – 90 posts
Paramount Pizza Company, Deeside – 60 jobs
FEBRUARY
Cameo Sofa Company, Pontypridd – 156 jobs
MARCH
Remploy, Pontypridd – 79 jobs
Hanson, Caernarfon – 50 jobs
APRIL
JCB Transmissions, Wrexham – 30 jobs
Eastman Chemical Company, Llangefni – 65 jobs
Avon Inflatables, Llanelli – 85 jobs
3M, Gorseinion – 185 jobs
UPDATE: It would seem that we have breached 4,000 manufacturing jobs lost with announcements today of 190 jobs lost at Fenmarc in Wrexham and 160 jobs at Kimball in Bridgend.
Comments
Does WAG have a strategy for coping with this or is it more bland words and inaction again?
JCB cut jobs
57 jobs to go at Avon Inflatables
Construction jobs will go as housing market slows.
I see nothing replacing these recent job losses -when was the last time we heard of jobs comming to the Valleys, othe than civil service jobs being relocated -so nothing there,
DWP are shutting local offices and cutting staff and services.
Put the jigsaw together ,its not good.
a few points on Amazon
How much public subsidy was given for them to come to Wales and wouldn't this money have been better spent investing in the local economy creating long term sustainable job prospects for the local workforce
22 day Planing Application Process, how much scrutiny was applied to this?
Given the size if the site, are there plans for when Amazon leave, we don't need more Industrial Units
How about you support Andrew Millar's PMB to give agency workers the stability needed to not be at the mercy at agencies?
I am sure you will mention the market needed 'flexbility'; reeling off how this would lose 'so and so' many jobs, but you cannot bemoan the flight of jobs on one hand and then oppose shoring up the rights of workers in their jobs on the other.
Well, you might actually support it, but i doubt it.
More tellingly, the proportion of workforce not in employment has increased from 26.3 per cent to 28 per cent. Employment, over the same period, has increased by 26,000 (or 2 per cent).
Therefore, the main problem is that jobs are being created BUT that those jobs are not being taken up by the unemployed or the economically inactive in Wales.
This is one of the real challenges for Wales - how do we deal with a level of people not working that is considerably higher than for the rest of the UK?
We also have the issue of being the poorest region of the UK, the lowest levels of R&D spending and the fact that the mass of new jobs have been in low paid sectors such as retail.
By the way, these facts were presented by Professor Kevin Morgan in Edinburgh last weekend when discussing the effect of devolution (or the lack of it) on the Welsh economy.
I take your point about agency workers but, with respect, that is not where the jobs are being lost and it will have little effect on the economic problems being faced in Wales, although it is something I will examine in more detail
And no one records the under-employment.
Just remeber these statistics are people who want jobs ,have families and need some real action
that gives an insight into Welsh Labour thinking on these matters, how do workers rights imapct on people who have no jobs?
The problem is that agencies are 'buying up' jobs, many in manufacturing, so i would predict within a generation there will be very little non agency work in Wales. I have worked at two of the biggest recruitment agencies in Wales, and i can assure this is their goal. We all the know the tactic of businesses sacking permanent staff only to reinstall them or others as temporary workers. Such problems makes the 'job flight' all the easier.
Also i am sure you would perhaps look at lowering corporation tax et al, a pretty fair policy to consider. But we are losing these jobs because other countries can undercut us so much that is the bottom line reason. Blame governments policy all you want, but bottom line is all the jobs are being done far cheaper and with less workers rights across the otherside of the world.
Of course, Andrew Millar's PMB does not directly impact on those not in work. But my experience is that due to the ever increasing amount of agency supplied jobs, the long term unemployed are nervous because the jobs available offer no stability, less wages, no rights and all with only one days notice needed.
The only way to really change things is to make work far more attractive than being on benefits. This will require the prerequisite 'carrot and stick' of both tougher parameters for those claiming benefits and a higher minimum wage. There seems to be a orthodoxy of right wing thinking that believes government's must offer the subsidy to the big business for nothing in return (who can forget LG? Tens of my friends were left with no job from that) in terms of commitments (swallow factories). We should be offering the subsidy to the worker by increasing their wages- this would directly attract those who are not in work into work.
Lets cut the academic language out, because ordinary people couldnt give a toss. People stay on benefits because it is not worth their while to go work- we should make it worth their while.
I thought I had toned it down!
The question of agency work is well made but perhaps the assembly should lead by example. The fact that it spent £12 million on agency nurses last year shows that as much needs to be done in the public sector as in the private sector.
However, you should know by now that I am the last person who believes that subsidy should be offered to large firms.
In addition, this bullshit about commercial confidentiality regarding grants is a smokescreen. If the Assembly is giving companies such as Amazon public money then we, as taxpayers, have the right to how much is being spent.
We could have a long debate on progressive taxation and the real need to have low taxes for the low paid. Indeed, increasing the lower tax ceiling to around £10,000 would have a massive difference for so many people. However, the better half has just come in with the takeaway so I have to go!
p.s. don't be despondent about politics as you were on your blog the other day. There are other ways to get involved and, despite our ideological differences, I believe you can make a real contribution to politics in Wales, especially through the quality of your writing.