Expect manufacturing industry to provide income (value added), not jobs

In France, there is a lot of talk of reindustrialisation. But in the face of competition from central European countries and other emerging countries, reindustrialisation cannot involve mid- to low-end industry, which employs many workers, given labour costs in France. Reindustrialisation in France can only involve high-end, highly automated (robotised) industry, for which labour costs matter little. Industry can therefore provide significant value added (income creation), but not significant job creation, given the much higher labour productivity in industry than in the rest of the economy. Job creation is then indirect: highly productive industry generates very significant income that fuels demand for services and construction and creates jobs in these sectors; manufacturing industry directly consumes a lot of services. There may therefore be a return to full employment thanks to this productive industry, even though it creates few jobs itself. The problem is that the jobs created will be low-skilled on average, increasing labour market polarisation between high-skilled jobs on the one hand and low-skilled jobs on the other.