Should we be surprised? Probably not. According to the ElecTech Council – the recently renamed Embedded Systems Community – the electronics sector underpins something like 1million UK jobs in companies generating some 6% of the UK’s GDP – around £100billion. And it believes the GDP contribution could rise to £120bn by 2020.
These jobs are also ‘real’ – companies need full time engineers to help them succeed. Contrast this with other sectors, where things like zero hours contracts have become all too prevalent.
Meanwhile, EngineeringUK has for the last couple of years pointed to a substantial shortfall in the number of people needed in the engineering and manufacturing sectors.
Even though things are looking better for the electronics sector, there’s a lot more work to be done.
