The Engineering Industries: I Product and Competitive Structure

Abstract

The industries to be studied in this and the following chapter consist of mechanical and electrical engineering, transport equipment, and the miscellaneous group of metal-using industries. The engineering industries have been chosen for special attention within the whole field of manufacturing activity because of their importance, first in terms of numbers employed, and secondly because they produce a large proportion of the total output of capital goods. The future rate of growth of the economy depends largely on the efficiency with which they produce such goods, not only for the home market but also for the country’s customers overseas. Their importance has grown considerably during the last half-century. In 1911, 9 per cent of the occupied population obtained their livelihood from the engineering trades; by 1961 the proportion had grown to 18 per cent. During the same period the share of the occupied population employed in manufacturing industry had grown from just under one-quarter to just over one-third of the total, so that the share of engineering employment in manufacturing has risen from about two-fifths to about one-half.