The Government came in for some sharp criticism this week, notably from Andy Haldane who, writing in his capacity as chair of the industrial strategy council, proclaimed “UK industrial strategy is dead”.
But the UAE is backing the Government’s direction, announcing yesterday £800m of investment in the British life sciences sector over a period of five years, matched by £200m from the British government fund.
The Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) this week projected that the private sector will invest over £60bn in developing, constructing, and operating offshore wind projects in the UK between now and 2026.
Last week’s commentary focussed attention on the recovering online job advertisements data in the UK. These data are proving to be a good lead indicator for the jobs market. Data on Tuesday showed another rise of 67,899 payrolled employees in February.
Employment in professional, scientific & technical activities appears to be recovering quickly too, rising for two consecutive quarters after an increase of 25k in Q4. The share of jobs in both ‘information & communication’ and ‘professional, scientific & technical activities’ accounted for a record 13.5% of the total in Q4 2020.
