Publication CEPYME500 2017

#MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY SECTOR
The industry, key to the quality of employment
The Spanish industry has reduced its contribution to
GDP from 19% in 2000 to 16% in 2016. In this period,
the contribution of the service sector to Spain's economic
growth increased, at the expense of industry
and, above all, of construction.
The process of economic growth that took place in
Spain until 2007, as in many other European countries,
entailed an industrial relocation. It was wrongly
believed that it was possible to maintain the influence
and weight of the industry in GDP while moving a significant
part of the production to countries that were
more competitive in costs.
The lack of incentives generated a massive industrial
relocation and the industrial activity moved to emerging
countries that have known, as Spain did, how to
value the opportunity that was granted to them.
These countries absorbed the knowledge passed
on to them by more mature economies, created their
own industrial structures and processes, trained technicians
and workers, extended commercial networks
and are today able to compete successfully.
In contrast, among the countries that export industry,
for instance Spain, quantity and quality of production
were lost, as well as the capacity to develop and
design new products and services.
Developed economies have witnessed both their
physical and knowledge industrial capital shrink, as
well as employment and, in turn, global competitiveness.
The process has led to a change in investment
and jobs towards activities with lower added value
and which are less resilient in the face of economic
cycles. As a result, important segments of the population,
formerly occupied in the industry and settled
in the comfort of the middle classes, have seen their
wages fall and unemployment increase.
The metal industry needs to reverse this negative trend
so that it can continue to create jobs and wealth and
boost other sectors. The industry is key to the quality of
employment, as it provides more qualified and stable
jobs than other sectors of the economy.
In addition, industrial activity not only benefits the sector
itself, but also extends its revitalising effect to other sectors
of the economy due to its multiplying effect: each
new job in the industry generates two more jobs in the
trading and service sectors.
But reindustrialisation involves changing the industrial
model and that is not an easy task, it requires state policies
to break down barriers and structural obstacles.
Some of the difficulties that the industry faces in reversing
this trend are the financing of companies, many of
them of small size, barriers to the training and qualification
of workers, insufficient investment in innovation,
difficulties in entering foreign markets, the fragmentation
of the domestic market, the uncompetitive energy
market and the current cost structure.
The industry, as a key economic sector to maintain prosperity
and the welfare state, must maintain high levels
of productivity, which in turn requires excellent infrastructures,
sophisticated capital goods and well-trained
staff to use them in the most efficient, competitive and
profitable way.
But above all, reindustrialisation in Spain requires the
will, the commitment and the effort of society and administrations.
This constitutes the first demand from the
industry.
064 | CEPYME500