"The share of GDP going to wages has shrunk from 65% to 53% in less than a generation," he said. "At the same time household debt has trebled. It now means we're at a point where companies can only grow if consumers get more and more into consumer debt, and this is not sustainable."
At a lively conference, attended by the chancellor and shadow chancellor, HRDs were told to both take more risks ("most corporates seem to have had their risk gene taken away from them," said entrepreneur Richard Noble), and resist continued antipathy to training:
"Many companies have resisted against being seen as the finishing school for a failed education system," said Jill McDonald, UK CEO of McDonald's. But she added: "We need to remove the snobbery the dumbs down vocational learning."
At McDonald's - where 50% of staff are under the age of 21 - tens of thousands of staff learn NVQ-level skills each year, and its training network is so large, it has its own Ofsted rating. "If the young stay unemployed and isolated, it is bad for business in the long-term," she said. "Companies are too quick to write-off young people who have not left school with good grades," she added. "I see the transformation that giving someone a credible job creates. Within weeks I see shy people become self-assured and both their confidence and performance increase too."
Her comments were made as delegates were told the hospitality sector alone needs 1 million more people by 2017.
