Manufacturing: Key Economic Indicators

Manufacturing is one of the production industries, which also include mining, electricity, water & waste management and oil & gas extraction.

In October-December 2022, the manufacturing sector accounted for 9.2% of total UK economic output (Gross Value Added). It accounted for 8.1% of jobs over the same period.

Manufacturing Output

Manufacturing output fell by 0.4% between December 2022 and January 2023 and was 2.7% below pre-pandemic levels (February 2020). 7 of the 13 subsectors negatively contributed to growth.

Manufacturing output for the three months to January 2023 fell by 0.2% compared to the three months to October 2022. For the three months to January 2023, manufacturing output decreased by 5.5%, compared with the same period the previous year.

Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)

In the S&P Global/CIPS PMI, a value of 50 means that there is no change compared to the previous month. Values above 50 indicate an expansion, and values below 50 a contraction.

The UK manufacturing PMI in February 2023 was 49.3, up from 47.0 in January. Although this was still a contraction, it was at its highest level since July 2022, with production levels up. Both supply chain disruption and inflation showed signs of easing, although employment was down.