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| Youth sees 'industry' as 'money' whereas older people see 'dirt'  Younger people's attitudes towards 'industry' have almost nothing in common with those of older people, a new national survey commissioned by Amec, The Sunday Times and by the Work Foundation has found. Where people over 45 years old tend to think of smokestacks and coal mines, noise and grime, those under 30 – and particularly those under 24 – tend to be future-oriented in their word-associations, summoning images of computers, success, money and technology.The top word associations among people aged under 24 for 'industry' were: 'money', 'busyness', booming', 'computers', 'success' and 'technology'. The top word associations among people over 45 were 'factory', 'decline', 'dirt', 'strike', 'China', and 'masculinity/maleness'. Overall, the most popular word associations were 'factory' (26.6%), followed by 'money' (19.8%), 'decline' (11.7%), 'busyness' (6.2%) and 'computers' (6.2%). The older the respondent the less 'money' tended to be associated with industry. Belief in the decline of industry is not as widespread as is sometimes assumed. Asked whether they thought British industry was doing better or worse than 30 years ago, a total of 54 per cent said it was doing worse, 33 per cent better and 10 per cent about the same (the remainder said they didn't know). But among younger people, the perception is again considerably more positive. Among the 16-24 age group, 79.3% say they believe that British industry is doing better than 30 years ago. A total of 42 per cent think that jobs in industry are either very or quite high quality, compared with 25 per cent who rated them either very or quite poor quality. Among 16-24 year olds, 67.2% say they think the quality of jobs in industry is very good. There are also marked regional differences. People in Wales were more likely to associate 'coal mines' with industry than in other regions. Londoners were more likely to think of 'money'. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Construction News :: home page |