UK jobs outlook is positive, Mandelson says

The employment prospects facing Britain are positive, according to the country's business secretary. Lord Mandelson suggested that the new year marks the start of a decade in which the economy will come under pressure but also one in which it will exhibit its strengths and competiveness compared with other states.

His comments were made in a speech to The Work Foundation, which was established in 2002 and has its roots tracing back more than 80 years when The Industrial Society was set up. Addressing members of the independent campaigning charity, the peer claimed that the UK has one of the "best environments in the world" for starting and growing a new business.

He went on to state that the government will invest in the "jobs of the future". Emphasising the need for action, he added: "Other governments are actively investing in their industrial strength. We have to do the same. And it won't happen if we take the wrong turn in sorting out the national finances in the coming months."

Lord Mandelson went on to claim that Britain has benefited from the "timely privatisation of industries that were long overdue for return to the commercial sector" which occurred in the 1980s. Along with the development, the quality of management improved, he suggested.

However, in a more cautionary note, he said that firms still suffer "from too large a tail" of poor leadership and there is currently a debate concerning which business model enterprises should follow.

In order to achieve the most from the employment market and economy in general, a return to certain values is required, he posited. According to Lord Mandelson, hard work, enterprise and corporate stewardship and mutual commitment are needed. At the same time, firms must move away from the ideals of "dodging responsibility, making a fast buck, and putting self before others", he argued.

Lord Mandelson, who assumed his current position in June last year, said that Britain needs a dynamic economy and society that is successful and provides enough jobs. However, people also need security for themselves and their families in a "fast-changing" world, he went on to claim.

The business secretary, who was born in 1953, studied philosophy, politics and economics at St Catherine's College, Oxford. He has held a number of positions during this career, including one as an economist at the Trades Union Congress and another as a current affairs TV producer.