It was quite nice to hear that AEI compounds, a plastic manufacturer for cables and water pipes, has decided to stay in Kent whilst expanding. The company has been given a business investment grant to move to a larger site within the county. If it is keeping the jobs in Kent and allowing the company to grow then who can complain? Sounds like a win win situation to me!

I do not know who would have awarded this grant but it is good to know that someone has recognised the importance of manufacturing. As England has evolved it seems like we have really moved into the tertiary sector. If we broke down and categorized all the businesses, it would be interesting to see what percentage lies in the service industry. I would be very surprised if it did not dominate our total output of the economy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-sector_hypothesis

Do you think that this could be part of the UK’s downfall in the recession? The tertiary focus is on people interacting with people – tourism, insurance, hospitality, consulting etc. Now I am hearing reports of consumer spending reaching an all time low – are we still using some/all of these tertiary services? Do we perhaps still need manufacturing jobs and trading to fall back on? Is living in a post industrial society sustainable at times like these?