Consumption, Investment and Jobs

There is more to the GDP (gross domestic product) of a country than the headline indicator value. Its calculation and composition reveal much about an economy, especially when the components are combined with other measures.

This A0-sized poster contains in one sheet full historical data sets for the whole UK economy since 1990. These data sets cover economic activity, investment, capital, employment, energy, trade, balance of payments and transportation. The purpose is to show their interactions, thus provide an insight into GDP, economic growth and carbon emissions.

The UK economy is essentially about the production of output (goods and services) for consumption. All forms of production need some sort of physical economic assets (capital). These assets are grouped on this poster into six conventional economic sectors: agriculture, extraction, utilities, manufacturing, construction and the services sector together will dwellings.

Economic output from the six sectors is in response to demand from other sectors and final consumption shown by the red arrows. These feed into calculation of GDP.

The physical assets of each sector require investment to make up for their depreciation as well as enabling sector growth. A proportion of GDP is investment shown by the blue arrows which goes to each of the economic sectors and dwellings.

The sectors each require labour. The green arrows show how the jobs each sector provides result in employment for the UK population.

The poster includes a 20-step explanation of some key features and relationships. It also explores insights by taking ratios for each sector between various inputs, outputs and capital stocks.

For more information and requesting copies of this poster, please contact: simon.roberts@arup.com; +44 (0)20 7755 2906; Arup, 13 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 4BQ, UK.