Trade Union Membership Rate Down In 2013

There approximately 6.5m employees trade union members in 2013 according to the Department for Business, Industry and Skills (BIS). The level more or less is unchanged from 2012 with a slight reduction of 6,000 over the year but is well below the highest point of 13m in 1979.

The number of employees increased between 2012 and 2013 and the membership rate fell slightly to 25.6% in 2013. It is the lowest rate of membership between 1995 and 2013. The percentage of employees who were trade union members has fallen from 32.4% in 1995.

Private sector trade union membership fell from 3.4m in 1995 to 2.5m in 2010. The trend seems to be reversing since then with a third consecutive year of increased membership in 2013 of 61,000 to 2.6m. In the public sector levels fell to 3.8m in 2013 from 3.9m in 2012. Membership density also decreased from 56.3% to 55.4%.

Unemployment Down 0.1%

Unemployment was down 0.1% on June to August figures with 2.49m people unemployed according to the ONS Labour Market Survey statistical bulletin for January 2013. The number of unemployed is down 37,000 on June to August and 185,000 on a year earlier. The ONS also reports that 71.4% of the working population were in employment. The number of young unemployed people increased by 1,000 to 957,000 16-24 year olds. The number of young people in employment also increased by 12,000 to 3.72m.

The number of people employed in the public sector fell by 24,000 to 5.75m. In the private sector the numbers employed totalled 23.86m, up 65,000 from June 2012. There was an inactivity rate of 22.5% the same as June to August 2012 but 0.7% down on the previous year.

The total actual hours worked were 944.3m in September to November 2012, an increase of 7.8m. Average weekly hours were up 0.2 on June to August and 0.1 on the previous year at 31.8.

Total pay increased by 1.5% and regular pay increased by 1.4% compared with September to November 2011. In November 2012 average total pay was £472/week and average regular pay was £444/week.

Unemployment Down By 0.2%

The unemployment rate went down by 0.2%, or 51,000 to 2.61m unemployed people in the three months to April. There were 29.28m people aged 16 and over in employment, up 166,000 on the quarter. Full-time workers numbered 21.32m and part-time workers 7.97m. The private sector accounted for 23.38m, up 205,000 and the public sector for 5.9m, down 39,000.

There were 1.01m unemployed young people (16-24 year olds) down by 29,000 and 3.62m young 16-24 year olds in employment. The unemployment rate for 16-24 year olds was down 0.6% to 21.9% in the three months to April. The unemployment rate is increased as increasing numbers of unemployed young people go into full-time education and are classed as economically inactive. If people in full-time education are excluded there were 709,000 unemployed 16-24 year olds in the three months to April.

The economic inactivity rate was 23%, down 0.2%. The economically inactive went down by 69,000 on the quarter and 139,000 over the year to 9.23m. The figure includes a fall of 62,000 to 2.25m people who were students. The claimant count in May 2012 was 1.6m, a rate of 4.9%.

Total pay in the public sector rose by 1.4% on the previous year to £479/week and regular pay by 0.8% to £467. Total pay in the private sector rose by 1.3% to £465/week in April 2012 and average regular pay rose by 2.1% to £431/week.

There were 31.89m workforce jobs in March 2012, up 357,000 over the quarter and 544,000 over the year. There were 465,000 job vacancies in the three months to May 2012. The number of redundancies on the quarter fell 0.7% to 6.2% but was up on the year by 1.6%.

Manufacturing Keeps Up Investment

Manufacturing investment increased by 15.7% over the quarter and by 31.7% over the year to Q3 2011 according to the latest business investment bulletin from the ONS.

Total business investment actually fell by 1.4% to £30.2bn over the previous quarter. Non-manufacturing investment fell by 3.4% over the quarter. Business investment rose over the quarter by 0.3%.

The increase in overall manufacturing was mainly due to an increase of 66.9% in metal goods, 61.8% in other manufacturing and 21.8% in engineering and vehicles in private sector manufacturing which increased by 15.7% to £3.7bn. The fall in investment was mainly due to the a in private sector non-manufacturing which fell 4.4% to £25.4bn.

7.1% Fall In Business Investment

Business investment fell by 7.1% to £28.1bn in the first quarter of 2011 compared with the previous quarter and by 3.2% on the first quarter of 2010. Manufacturing investment also fell on the quarter by 1.2% to £2.8bn but increased 14.8% over the year. Non-manufacturing investment fell by 7.7% to £25.3bn over the quarter and 4.8% over the year. In the private sector, investment by services fell to £19.4bn from £21.6bn in Q4 2010.

Unemployment At 7.7%

The unemployment rate for the 16-64 age group for the three months to March 2011 was down 0.1% to 7.7% or a total of 36,000 fewer unemployed people according to the ONS Labour Market Survey for March 2011. The number of unemployed people in March was 2.46m. The employment rater was 70.7% and the number of employed people was 29.57m. In the 16-24 age group unemployment was 20% of the economically active population, down 0.5% on the previous three months. The inactivity rate was 23.3% and the number of economically inactive people was 9.32m. Those inactive due to long-term illness numbered 2.16m. The claimant count increased by 12,400 to 1.47m.

Average regular pay for public sector workers in March 2011 was £471/week and averege total pay (incl. bonuses) was £481/week. For private sector workers average regular pay was £422/week and average total pay (incl. bonuses) was £466/week. The earnings annual growth rate for total pay was 2.3% for the three months to March and for regular pay 2.1%. Actual hours worked per week in tyhe three months to March totalled 921.9. Average weekly hours worked over he same period was 31.6.

There 123,000 redundancies in the three mnoths to March, down 24,000 on the previous three months and 53,00 on the year. The redundancy rate was 4.9 per 1,000 employees. Working days lost due to labour disputes totalled 145,000 in the twelve months to March 2011, the lowest since records began in 1931.

Whole economy output per worker was 0.8% up in Q4 2010 compared with the previous year. hole economy wage costs increased by 0.7% over the same period. In December 2010 there were 31.26m workforce jobs with the largest increase being in human health and social work. Vacancies in the three months to April 2011 were down 30,000 to 469,000. If the temporary vacancies connected with the Census are excluded the total falls to 461,000. There were 1.8 vacancies per 100 employees in the three months to April 2011.

Decrease In Trade Union Membership In 2010

Trade union membership fell slightly in 2010 compared with 2009. Membership density fell 0.8% to 26.6% and membership fell by 179,000 or 2.7% to 6.5m. During this time employment actually increased by almost 0.5% between 2009 and 2010. Density in the private sector fell by 0.9% and by 0.3% in the public sector acording to statistics from the Labout Force Survey and published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the ONS.

The professional occupations reported the largest percentage of union density with 43.7%. Sales occupations were lowest with 12.9%. Females are now more likely to be union members than males whether by age, public sector, workplace size, job or other individual characteristics.

Geographically, density rose in Scotland by 0.5% to 32.3% but the other nations recorded falls of 0.9% in England and Wales and 4.2% in N.Ireland. The trend over the last 10 years shows that trade union density has fallen by about 3% in England, Scotland and N.Ireland and by about 5% in Wales. The North East recorded the largest fall in trade union density of 7.4% over the last 10 years. The East of England recorded the smallest fall of 1%. The last 10 years has also seen an increase in union density in the professional and administrative services, wholesale, retail trade and motor repair sectors but fell in the other sectors. Water supply, electricity and gas recorded the biggest falls of over 15% each.

Trade union presence reached 46.1% in 2010, a fall of 0.5% on 2009 and 2.8% over the last 10 years (2010). Collective agreements affected the pay and conditions of over 30% of employees from 36.4% in 2000. They covered 16.8% of private sector employees and 64.5% of public sector employees. The public sector accounted for 62.4% of union members, professional, associated professional and technical occupations accounted for 45.5% of all trade union members.

Record Number Of Small Business In UK

The Office for National Statistics and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills recently released statistics concerning small and medium sized enterprises for the UK and regions for 2009. It gives estimates of the numbers of SMEs in the UK the employment they provide and their turnover.

The release says that there were 4.8m enterprises in the private sector at the beginning of 2009, an increase of 1.1% or 51,000 on 2008 and the highest number since these records began in 1994. They employed 22.8m people and their combined turnover was an estimated £3,200bn. Although SMEs account for 99.9% of all enterprises, they accounted for 59.8% of private sector employment and only 49% of private sector turnover. The turnover increased in 2009 by an estimated 5.8% or £1,589bn on 2008.

Most, 99.3%, of the SMEs were small (0-49 employees) and only 27,000 were medium sized (50-249). There were only 6,000 large enterprises (over 250 employees) in the UK in 2008. The number of people employed by SMEs fell by 309,000 or -1.3% since 2008. The number of sole proprietorships increased for the seventh year in a row, by 65,000, to 3.1m. The total number of businesses without employees was 3.6m, up 68,000. They account for 74.8% of all private sector enterprises and a combined turnover of £240bn at the beginning of 2008. Partnerships decreased by 18,000 to 444,000.

Returns For UK Companies Fall Again

There has been another slight fall in the net rate of return by private non-financial UK companies in Q1 2010 following a fall last year. The net rate of return was 11.1% (11.4% gross) compared with the revised estimate of 11.3% and 11.6% in 2009.

Service companies NRR was 14.4% (14.3% gross), slightly down on the 14.7% of Q4 2009 and the 16.4% of the same quarter last year. Manufacturing companies NRR was 6.4% (Gross=7.5%) down from the 6.9% of the previous quarter and the 8.3% of the same quarter last year. Companies other than UK continental shelf companies reported NRR of 10.2%. UKCS companies NRR was 36.4% (Gross=22.4%) an improvement on the 32.3% (20.6%) of Q4 2009.

Manufacturing Investment Down Almost 30% On Last Year

The ONS have released revised estimates of business investment levels for Q1 2010. The new estimates put investment at £29,136m, an increase of 7.8% from the previous quarter and 7.7% lower than Q1 2009. Manufacturing's share has fallen by 0.2% to £2,364m on the previous quarter and by 29.6% since Q1 2009.

The revised estimate of investment in services within private sector non-manufacturing suggests a rise of 11.1% to £20,734m, construction increased by 36.5% to £602m, while other production has fallen by 2.4% to £4,471m since the previous quarter. Non-manufacturing investment by public sector corporations increased by 0.3% on the last quarter to £966m but has fallen by 15.3% since Q1 2009.

Estimates for private sector investment in computer software and hardware collected by the ONS separately from other capital investment suggest that total computer software investment by businesses for Q1 2010 was £1,593m and hardware £1,647m. Investment in software was down in all categories except 'other services' which went from £1,028m in Q4 2009 to £1,093m in Q1 2010 a big enough increase to increase the total level of investment in software. In hardware, manufacturing was the only category to decrease its investment. These figures suggest that private sector investment in computer software and hardware was about 12% of total business investment and evenly distributed between software and hardware. In manufacturing it was around 9.5% total investment and 12.75% of total investment in services.

Budget 2010

The main budget announcements from the five-year plan set out by Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne yesterday set out actions to reduce the budget deficit, to introduce a 'fairer' tax system, encourage enterprise and support long-term growth in the economy. The Coalition Government's three core values of responsibility, freedom and fairness are the basis for the Budget intentions to help rebalance the economy and provide conditions for sustainable growth.

In order to reduce the deficit the Chancellor has set a fiscal mandate to achieve a current balance by the end of the five-year period 2015-16; a target for debt to ensure sustainable public finances; spending reductions of £31.9bn/year by 2014-15 and tax increases of £8.2bn; £29.8bn of savings from current expenditure and £2.2bn from gross public investment; increase in VAT to 20%; indurance Premium Tax to 6%; a two year pay freeze on public sector pay (except those on less than £21,000pa who will get an additional £250).

Conditions for enterprise and sustainable growth were also set out to make UK more competitive by reducing regulation and providing tax breaks. Corporation tax rates will be reduced from 28% to 24%; the small profits rate will be reduced from 21% to 20%; NICs holiday for new businesses in certain areas; an increase in the Enterprise Finance Guarantee and a new Enterprise Capital Fund; a Regional Growth Fund in 2011-12 and 2012-13 for increases in business employment and growth.

The deficit reduction burden will be shared, the Budget says, by refocusing the tax and benefit framework and 'protecting the most vulnerable in society'. The Government want to encourage people to take personal responsibility, work hard and save responsibly. The personal allowance for under 65s will be increased by £1,000 to £7475 in 2011-12 taking 880,000 out of income tax; capital gains tax increase from 18% to 28% for higher rates and an extension of the 10% rate for entrepreneurial activites from first £2m to first £5m of qualifying gains made over a lifetime; a council tax freeze; a levy on banks balance sheets from January 2011. The basic State Pension will be uprated by a triple guarantee of earnings or 2.5% whichever is highest, from April 2011; reduction in tax credits for those with household income over £40,000 from £50,000; reducing annual allowance of pension tax relief; indexing benefits to the CPI instead of the RPI to reflect more fairly benefits claimants experiences.

The Government added that the Budget measures will pay for the past and plan for the future. They represent a first step in the transformation of the economy, rebalancing growth and lead to sustainable, private sector led growth.

2.51 Million Unemployed People

Unemployment increased by 53,000 to 2.51 million over the three months to March. The unemployment rate was 8% in March 2010. It is the highest number of unemployed people since December 1994. The number of people unemployed for over 12 months was 757,000 the highest since May 1997. The inactivity rate was up 0.2% to 21.5% with an increase of 88,000 to 8.17 million people of working age economically inactive. The number of vacancies went down 6,000 to 475,000 over the quarter.

Total pay (including bonuses) increased 4% for the three months to March 2010. Regular pay (excluding bonuses) increased by 1.9% from 1.7% in February 2010. Average total pay was £459/week and average regular pay £429/week. Total hours worked per week were 908.4 million with a weekly average of 31.6 in the three months to March 2010.

The public sector employed 6.10 million people and the private sector 22.76 million in December 2009. Average public sector total pay was £467/week and average regular pay was £459/week. Average private sector total pay was £463/week and regular pay £421/week in the three months to March 2010.

Trade Union Membership 2009

The rate of union membership for UK employees in 2009 was 27.4% the same as 2008 according to a National Statistics survey published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Membership fell at about the same rate as total employment over the year. The rate for all people in employment including the self-employed was 24.7% in 2009 from 24.9% in 2008. The number of employees who are trade union members fell by 163,000 or 2.4% to 6.7 million. For all in employment, the number of members fell by 165,000 to 7.1 million or by 2.3%.

The number of female union members increased 0.2% to 29.5% but the number of males fell by 0.4% to 25.2%. Female union density was higher than males for the eighth year in a row. Both public and private sector membership fell by about 0.5%. The private sector fell to 15.1% and the public sector to 56.6% in 2009.

The nations of the UK had varying union densities. The highest density was in N. Ireland with 39.9%, Wales had 35.4%, Scotland had 31.8% and England had the lowest union density with 26.1%. London had the largest decrease in density with 2.2%, Yorkshire and Humberside came next down 0.9% and the East Midlands with 0.4%.

Taking all sectors into account 46.6% of employees worked in a workplace with a trade union presence in 2009. About a third of emplyees said their pay and conditions were affected by collective agreements. Collective agreements covered about 20% of private sector employees and 68.1% of public sector employees in 2009, a fall of 2.4% on 2008.

Unemployment Rate At 8%

The ONS Labour Market Survey says that for December 2009 to February 2010 there were 2.5 million people unemployed and the unemployment rate was 8%. The employment rate was given as 72.1% or 28.82 million employed people. There were also 8.16 million economically inactive people equalling 21.5%. Pay including bonuses rose by 2.3% and pay excluding bonuses rose by 1.7%. Yorkshire and Humberside had the highest unemployment rate at 9.5%, the North East and the West Midlands both had 9.5%. The South East, South West and N. Ireland had the lowest with 6.4%. The figures compare with the 64.8% employment rate for July-September 2009 and the 9.6% unemployment rate for February 2010 that are the averages in the EU.

The 72.1% employment rate is the lowest it has been since October 1996. as the number of people in employment fell by 89,000 (F/T 59,000 and P/T 30,000). It was 74.9% for men and 69% for women. The number of unemployed increased by 43,000. The number unemployed for over 6 months fell by 46,000 to 1.22 million. The number of people unemployed for over 12 months increased by 89,000 to reach 726,000 the highest since July 1997. The 2.5 million unemployed people included 1.53 million unemployed men, up 23,000, and 970,000 unemployed women, up 20,000 since three months ending in November. The number of employed people was made up of 13.47 million men and 7.69 million women. Part-time workers totalled 7.67 million of which 1.88 million were men and 5.79 million people were women. The public sector employed 6.1 million people and the private sector 22.76 million people in December 2009.

There were 1.54 million people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance between February and March 2010. The count has fallen 4 out of the last 5 months. The inactivity rate is the highest it has been since October 2004. The number of inactive people was 110,000 which includes 71,000 students. Vacancies increased by 9,000 to 475,000. There were 30.75 million workforce jobs in December 2009. There were 30.75 million workforce jobs, down 119,000 over the quarter to December 2009. The largest decrease was in distribution, hotels and restaurants with 62,000 job losses. Most of the workforce jobs were in London and the South East, the least jobs in England were in the North East, in Wales and N.Ireland.

The annual growth rate for total earnings was 2.3% driven mainly by the financial sector's higher bonuses and a change in timing of payment of bonuses from January last year to February this year. Annual regular pay (excluding bonuses) was 1.7% in February up from 1.5% in the three months to January 2010. Average total pay was £443/week and average regular pay £428/week. In the private sector average total pay was £451/week and average regular pay £418/week. In the public sector average total pay was £462/week and average regular pay was £459/week. There were a total of 912.8 million hours worked in the quarter to February 2010. Average weekly hours were 31.7 hours.

Redundancies went down by 20,000 to 6.5/1000 employees. Labour disputes lost 3,000 working days in February 2010 and in the 12 months to February 440,000 working days were lost from 100 stoppages.

The 18-24 year old bracket increased by 14.1% over the year overall and by 39.9% for 6-12 months and 56.9% for over 12 months while up to 6 months fell by 4.8% over the year. Agriculture, forestry and fishing jobs decreased by 3.8% on the quarter and 3% on the year to February.

Business Investment 4.3% Down

Business investment is estimated to have fallen by 4.3% in the final quarter of 2009 from the previous quarter and by 23.5% on the same quarter last year. The total seasonally adjusted figure for investment is £27.3bn. The estimate for manufacturing by both private and public sector is a decrease of 5% on the quarter and 32.3% on the year with a figure of £2.4bn.

Services investment fell again in the fourth quarter and fell in every quarter of 2009. They are estimated to have fallen by 29.1% compared with Q4 2008. Construction fell by 21.8% after increases in Q2 and Q3, other production is estimated to have risen by 13.8%. Public corporations' revised estimate for non-manufacturing business investment is an increase of 0.6% on the quarter and 1.8% on the year. The Q4 figure is £944m.

Investment in computer software and hardware is continuing to attract the interest of statisticians and is of increasing importance as a category of investment. The ONS figures only respresent the private sector. Total investment in computer software in Q4 2009 is estimated to have been £1.5bn, compared with £1.4bn in the last quarter and £1.7bn last year. The total for computer hardware acquisitions less disposals at current prices is estimated to have been £1.4bn, compared with £1.38bn last quarter and £1.79bn last year. These estimates suggest that investments in computer software and hardware amounts to approximately 10% of all private sector business investment (5% software, 4.75% hardware). In manufacturing investment in computer hardware and software is about 9.5% of total investment and in services it amounts to about 11.75%.

Investment Down Nearly A Quarter On Last Year

Business investment for Q4 2009 is estimated to have fallen by 5.8% and by 24.1% over the year. The figure for Q4 was £27,121m. Investment by public and private sector manufacturing fell by 8.2% (CVM) on the previous quarter and 35.3% over the year. The figure for Q4 was £2,304m.

Investment in services fell by 8.3% in Q4 and compared with Q4 2008 have fallen by 30.6% to £18,376m. Other production increased their investment by 7.8% on the previous quarter and by 20.9% compared with Q4 2008 to £5,070m. Construction investment fell by 24.5% on Q3 2009 and by 22.3% on Q4 2008 to £435m.

Investment in both computer sofware and hardware by the private sector increased over the qaurter. Total private sector computer software investment for Q4 2009 was £1,486m up from £1,387m in Q3. Total private sector computer hardware investment in Q4 2009 was £1,396m up from £1,251m. These estimates seem to suggest that about 9.75% of private sector business investment was in Q4 2009 on computer software and hardware. This was divided 5% and 4.75% between software and hardware respectively. In manufacturing, investment in computer software and hardware was about 9.25% and in the service sector it was about 11.75%.

Increase In Long-Term Unemployment

The employment rate for October to December 2009 was 72.4%, down 0.1% on the quarter and 28.91m employed people, down 12,000. The number in full-time employment fell 37,000 to 21.22m. Part-time employment increased by 25,000 to 7.67m. The workforce also included 1.04m part-time people looking for a full-time job, the highest since 1992, up 37,000 on the quarter.

The unemployment rate was unchanged 7.8% and there were 2.46m unemployed people, 3,000 fewer than the last quarter. There were 37,000 more long-term unemployed over the quarter to give a total of 663,000, the highest figure since the quarter to September 1997. There were 725,00 18-24 year olds unemployed. In January 2010 there were 1.64m people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance, an increase of 23,500 since December 2009 following two successive monthly falls. The claimant count rate is 5%.

The inactivity rate for the quarter to December was uo 0.2% to 21.3%. The highest ever inactivity rate recorded was 23.3% in 1983. There were 8.06m inactive working age people over the quarter due to an increase of 72,000 thanks to an increase of 62,000 students to 2.62m, the highest since records began.

The number of vacancies in the three months to January 2010 was 479,000, an increase of 49,000. There were 1.8 vacancies for every 100 employee jobs. Redundancies totalled 168,000 in the three months to December. The redundancy rate was 6.8 per 1000 employees.

Total pay (including bonuses) rose by 0.8% on last year to £451/week. Regular pay (excluding bonuses) rose by 1.2% on last year to £425/week. Private sector average total pay in December 2009 was £448/week and was unchanged on a year earlier. Average regular pay was £416/week. Public sector average total pay was £457/week and rose 3.7% over the year. Average regular pay (excluding bonuses) in the public sector was £456/week and rose 3.9% over the year.

Whole economy unit wage costs rose by 4.1% in the third quarter of 2009 compared with a year earlier while productivity was 3.1% lower. Manufacturing unit wage costs decreased by 0.7% while manufacturing productivity increased by 3.6% over the same period.

Public sector employment totalled 6.09m, an increase of 23,000 and the private sector accounted for 22.82m, up 15,000 from June 2009. There were 30.86m workforce jobs in September 2009, down 127,000 over the quarter and 649,00 over the year. Construction alone fell by 67,000, agriculture by 1,000, production jobs fell by 41,000 and services by 18,000. There were 2.6m employee jobs in manufacturing.

Hours worked totalled 907.0m in the quarter to December, down 1.8m on the previous qaurter. Average weekly hours in the quarter to December were 31.5, unchanged from September 2009.

In the three months to December 2009 there were 25.26m UK nationals and 3.72m non-UK people in employment. Some 3,000 working days were lost due to 11 labour dispute stoppages.

A Fall In The Number Of Unemployed And Claimants

The number of unemployed people fell for the first time since May 2008. There were 7,000 fewer people unemployed bringing the number down to 2.46m. The number unemployed for over 12 months grew by 29,000 over the quarter to 631,000, the highest since November 1997. The unemployment rate for September to November was unchanged at 7.8%. The claimant count fell for the second consecutive month to reach 1.61m, the largest monthly fall since April 2007.

There were 448,000 vacancies in the three months to December 2009. That is an increase of 16,000 on the previous three months but 80,000 fewer than a year earlier. There were 30.86m workforce jobs in September 2009. Construction saw the largest decrease in jobs. The inactivity rate was 21.2% for September to November 2009. The number of inactive people rose by 79,000 to 8.05m.

Total hours worked per week in the three months to November were 910.9m. Average weekly hours came to 31.5, up 0.2 from August 2009. Productivity was 3.1% lower in Q3 2009 than Q3 2008 and unit wage costs rose by 4.1% over the same period. Manufacturing unit wage costs increased by 1.8%.

Average regular pay rose by 1.1% on the previous year, but decreased 0.1 on the previous quarter. Average total pay in November was £451/week, an increase of 0.7%. Private sector average regular pay in November was £414/week and average total pay was £447/week. Public sector average regular pay £455/week, average total pay was £459/week.

In November 14 labour disputes cost the economy 36,000 working days. Over the year to November 90 stoppages meant 436,000 lost working days. The number of redundancies decreased by 31,000 to 182,000 in the three months to November on the previous quarter and 46,000 on the previous year.

A Fall In Investment In Services

Business investment for the third quarter of 2009 is estimated to have fallen by 3% to £28,393m, a fall of £885m. Investment by both private and public sectors in manufacturing has also fallen by an estimated 9.5% to £2,581m. Services sector investment was £19,825m, a fall of 2.2% and construction fell by 0.6%. Investment in services is estimated to have fallen by over 25% since the same time last year.

There was an increase in expenditure on both computer software and hardware during the quarter on the previous quarter but a decrease on the same quarter last year.

There were decreases in investment in distribution and public corporations. Within the services sector, reductions in expenditure occurred in real estate, renting, hotels and restaurants and education. These reductions are offset by increased expenditure in financial intermediation and transport and communications.

Services Investing More In Computers

The provisional estimates for total business investment for the second quarter of 2009 were released by the ONS recently. The estimate was £29,894m, down £3,483m or 10.4%, on the previous quarter. Manufacturing accounted for £2,886m and non-manufacturing £27,028m. Compared with Q2 2008 it is down 18.4%. The estimates for investment in computer hardware and software say that about 8% of private sector business investment was on computer hardware and software (3.75% to 4.25%). It was about 7% of manufacturing investment and 9.5% in the service sector.