The UK - a futures economy
Where will the UK economy grow in the next 20 years?
Digital Economy: A digital economy is based on digital technology and it is estimated that the digital economy will generate 10% of the UK’s GDP by 2015.
Digital technology in the form of the Personal Computer and the Internet has already transformed work, education, government, leisure and entertainment, generating new market opportunities and having a major economic impact across a broad range of sectors. The emergence of new digital infrastructures, including wireless networks, mobile devices and positioning technologies, heralds the next radical shift in digital technology.
There are costs and benefits to the digital economy:
•Many transactions can be done very swiftly with fewer mistakes
•Greater reliability of some systems
•Speed and connectivity are key advantages (to all parts of the world)
•Potential danger to young and vulnerable people from access to the internet
•Growing areas of criminal activity – hacking
Knowledge Economy: the new economies based on the processing of knowledge and information using telecommunications.
In both companies and universities, research and development benefit the UK economy hugely. The biggest R&D sectors in the UK are pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, aerospace and defence, software, the car industry and telecommunications.
Over the last decade or so the growing importance of knowledge in supporting and driving economic growth has been emphasised.
Knowledge in developed and applied across all sectors of the economy.
There has been increased funding for research which focuses on new technologies, some of it biomedical, some of it, IT based. These developments will create new jobs and even new industries.
Green employment: the jobs connected with making sustainable environmental future.
Green jobs and the growing ranks of green businesses are one of the few bright spots of the UK's recession hit economy, providing a third of what growth the economy has seen.
There are now nearly 1 million people employed in green jobs, from biofuels and electric car manufacturing to wind turbine installation, with more than 25,000 jobs created last year. The green sector is now bigger than car manufacturing, aerospace or telecoms and the UK's green economy is enhancing its international competitiveness and boosting its chances of exporting.
Firms making new wind turbines and solar power generators as well as hydroelectric power stations could create 2.5 million jobs by 2020.
Green transport may also create new jobs – as cars and lorries become more environmentally friendly – demand for skilled workers.
Foreign workforce: the workers employed in the UK who are originally from abroad.
In the last few years there has been a big increase in the number of workers from other countries who are working in the UK economy. One example of this is the large number of workers from countries like Portugal, Poland and Romania who have come to work in UK agriculture.
Many of these work harvesting fruit and vegetables, and sometimes moving from place to place as the harvest time of different crops occurs in different parts of the UK. Other foreign workers are in industrial occupations, often associated with processing or cleaning products.
In 2011 there were 2.6 million foreign workers in the UK. The Confederation of British Industry was saying that these foreign workers had essential skills which the UK economy needed.
The impacts of these changes:
1. Reduction of rush hour traffic means less pollution etc.
2. Hot desking – people use any desk that is free which means less space is needed.
3. Firms employ more people on flexible contracts – more are employed and firms can meet deadlines easier.
4. People do not waste time commuting to and from work.
5. In rural areas like northern Scotland there has been a decline in primary jobs so this is a good opportunity to work from home or set up new businesses.
6. Influx of new people – people new to the area like in northern Scotland or north Yorkshire. Some are retired but many are younger seeking a ‘better’ lifestyle.