Unemployment

(asked on 11th January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report entitled Where have all the workers gone, published on 20 December 2022, whether his Department's review of issues holding back workforce participation, as announced in the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022, plans to cover (a) whether sectors of the workforce will need to adapt by re-organising the way they produce their output, for example by replacing labour with automation or changes to terms and conditions, (b) in instances where those sectors are unable to adapt, whether they will become smaller than they would have been and (c) whether a Government policy response is necessary on these matters.


Answered by
Guy Opperman Portrait
Guy Opperman
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This question was answered on 19th January 2023

The government is clear that increasing labour supply is a key priority.

We will identify and understand the barriers preventing people from joining the workforce and/or resulting in people leaving the workforce early and will be focussing on four cohorts: early retirees, disabled people and people with health conditions, unpaid carers, and students.

How firms adapt to a changing labour market will depend on their type of business, for example, in the case of manufacturing we want more manufacturers to adopt technology that will improve productivity and stimulate growth, including robotics and automation and we have programmes that support them to do this. This includes the Made Smarter programme which has committed almost £200m in funding to large manufacturers and SMEs to develop new technology solutions and adopt existing tech, including robotics and autonomous systems.

We will work with other government departments and engage with a wide network of stakeholders, including economists, academics, charities, industry/business representatives and research organisations, to gather insight and develop new ideas to tackle the issue.

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