ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the composition of the new manufacturing workforce in the rapidly expanding industrial communities of the South East and West Midlands. During the interwar years structural, organisational, and technological changes had far-reaching effects on the nature of manufacturing work in Britain, in common with other industrialised nations. 'New' industries such as electrical engineering and motor vehicles involved a high proportion of assembly and other un/semi-skilled operations. Flexibility and low industrial militancy were desired characteristics common to both primary and secondary sectors of the new manufacturing workforce. In motor vehicles, production was very capital-intensive and employers used high wages to retain a workforce sufficiently reliable to maintain production at the pace determined by the moving assembly line. Many firms moving from London to areas such as Letchworth, Watford and Welwyn brought at least part of their workforce with them.
