Quest for full employment.

`Full employment, myth or reality' was the theme of the annual conference of The Industrial Pioneer newspaper, held at Tirley Garth, the MRA centre in the north of England last November. The conference was part of `a long-term strategy' to explore ways of achieving full employment, said organizer Dick Cosens.

The two-day event focussed on Britain's experience. The UK had lost two million jobs in manufacturing in the past 30 years, said Cosens. In the 10 years from 1972 car output had fallen from 1.9 million a year to 0.9 million.

But the `bandwagon of de-industrialization' had been slowed by the success of such industries as Rolls Royce aeroengines and the European Airbus, and through Japanese and German investment in the UK car industry. Their success had been due to `cooperation at industrial and government level'. Cosens saw the components of a `third way' between market forces and state ownership as `common sense, cooperation, partnership and social conscience'.

David Owen, Chairman of Rubery Owen engineering group, said the vehicles industry faced four major issues: the environment, productivity, government finance policy and global competition.

The industry worldwide was investing $4 billion in reducing emissions, which were now less than a tenth of 25 years ago.

But there was also a skills shortage in literacy, numeracy, computing and in confidence or `face-to-face' abilities. Too many youngsters lacked confidence and this undermined their job prospects, Owen believed.

Les Shearn, Development Advisor for British Aerospace, said the company was offering `quality jobs' to the long-term unemployed under the government's `New Deal' scheme, which aimed to get those out of work for six months or more back into jobs. Every new vacancy was being offered to New Deal applicants, Shearn said. The company saw this as part of their social responsibility and was sharing its experience with supplier companies to encourage them to `lock into the scheme'.

Balanced against the demise of traditional manufacturing jobs, Britain now had some 1.5 million people employed in information technology, a conference participant pointed out. Forecasts suggested that IT jobs in Britain could increase to three million.