UK Manufacturing Jobs double from 2.6M to 5.1M: Part 1 Is it True?

Now that is a real headline, and puts Brexit discussions into the shade, but is it true?
Measuring Manufacturing: Manufacturing Metrics Review Report, just published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/manufacturing-metrics-review has re-visited how manufacturing is interpreted in the national statistics and the chair Professor Sir Mike Gregory states in his summary:

"In summary, the group found that, while manufacturing as currently defined in national and international statistics is being effectively and reliably reported, there are substantial opportunities to capture and reflect the influence of manufacturing activities within the economy more comprehensively.

and that a new Value chain approach "suggests that jobs associated with manufacturing might number 5.1 million compared with the 2.6 million directly classified to manufacturing using conventional interpretations."

The graphic below taken from that report, reproduced here courtesy of Open Government Licence v3.0, shows the detail:

The report goes on to state:  "it is worth noting that UK manufacturing has delivered a productivity revolution showing a 125% increase in labour productivity since 1985" 

Feeling a little better now? Part 2 of this blog looks at what the report has to say about Servitization.