We can create many local jobs if all retailers were to take advantage of local capacity. We have willing workers and idle industrial capacity.

The fashion manufacturing sector sustains about 200 000 jobs and is vital to the economies of a number of cities and towns. We believe strong partnerships between design and manufacturing can grow the sector and create jobs.

We now need all government procurement, from municipal to national, to be from local companies.

We need a triple package: trade measures with China, a competitiveness package and an active 'buy local' campaign.

Laying-off permanent workers is so difficult and costly that companies have a strong preference for temp jobs, even if it is at the expense of productivity. When labor protection has become excessive and unaffordable, as it is in France, labor market institutions must be reformed.

We obviously need the workers for a lot of jobs.