Chapter 6 examines the EPRDF’s evolving attempts to generate mass manufacturing employment as a distributive strategy to replace the past focus on land and thereby retain political order. The government’s initial industrial strategy was inspired by post-war South Korea and Taiwan, seeking to nurture domestic capitalists to global competitiveness in a handful of labour-intensive sectors. However, this strategy largely failed due to the limited experience of domestic firms and state agencies, and intense competition in global markets. Consequently, the growing political imperative of mass employment creation and foreign exchange earnings prompted the government to change approach, building a series of industrial parks to attract foreign direct investment in an attempt to accelerate the industrialisation drive. Despite the high political priority placed on industrial development, however, progress in industrial employment creation was consistently slower than that demanded by the political leadership. Vitally, modest job creation was dwarfed by rapid population growth, leading to a growing distributive crisis of un- and underemployment, particularly affecting younger generations.