Abstract
This paper assesses the recent employment history of the North of England and its constituent sub-regions and cities within the context of broader trends in the UK and of major policy changes in the last 2 years. The paper draws on previous surveys of the employment performance of the North and on recent statistics on Job Seeker’s Allowance, and underemployment estimates based on the Special License UK Labour Force Survey. The paper describes the performance of the North during the long boom (1996 to 2006), and examines changes in the pattern of employment following the 2008/9 recession. Logistic regression is used to explore patterns of involuntary part time employment, broader time-related underemployment, and general and graduate level over-education. The findings reveal that beyond relatively higher levels of unemployment, several of the sub-regions and cities of the North of England also suffer comparatively high levels of underemployment and over-education, suggesting a potential under-utilisation of skills in the Northern regions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
In this paper the North refers to the regions of the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humberside.
These phases refer to the following years: the long boom stretches from 1996 to 2006, the financial crisis and recession is associated with 2007 to 2009 and the modest recovery period to 2010 and 2011.
NUTS = Nomenclature d’Unités Territoriales Statistiques (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics). See for details: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/nuts_nomenclature/introduction.
The recession in UK employment is dated to have ended in March 1993 by Sensier and Artis (2011) but the lowest levels of employment are found to be later for Northern regions: November 1994 for the North East, October 1995 for the North West (Artis and Sensier 2010) and May 1994 for Yorkshire and Humberside.
References
Artis, M. J., & Sensier, M. (2010). Tracking unemployment in the North West through recession and forecasting recovery. New Economy Working Paper Series, no. NEWP: 02, February 2010. http://neweconomymanchester.com/stories/993-new_economy_working_papers_archive.
Battu, H., Belfield, C. R., & Sloane, P. (1999). Over-education among graduates: a cohort view. Education Economics, 7, 21–38.
BIS/CLG. (2010). Understanding local growth. BIS Economics Paper No. 7. Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Department of Communities and Local Government. London: BIS.
BIS (2010). Regional Growth Fund. http://www.bis.gov.uk/RGF.
Brülhart, M., & Mathys, N. A. (2008). Sectoral agglomeration economies in a panel of European regions. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 38, 348–362.
Buchanan, J., Froud, J., Johal, S., Leaver, A., Williams, K. (2009). Undisclosed and unsustainable: Problems of the UK national business model, CRESC Working Paper Series, Working Paper No.75.
Dolphin, T. (2009). The impact of recession on northern city-regions. Joseph Rowntree Foundation/ippr. http://www.ippr.org/publications/55/1731/the-impact-of-the-recession-on-northern-city-regions.
Elias, P., & Purcell, K. (2004). SOC (HE): A classification of occupations for studying the graduate labour market. Researching Graduate Careers Seven Years On, Research Paper No. 6. Warwick: Institute for Employment Research.
Fujita, M. M., & Thisse, J.-F. (2002). Economics of agglomeration: Cities, industrial location, and regional growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Green, A. E. (2010). Labour market trends and issues: Challenges facing the North of England, moving forward: The northern way, turning points, drivers and assets papers. Editors: CURDS/SERC. http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=794.
Harding, A., & Rees, J. (2010). Connectivity and the North of England. Northern Way Turning Points Symposium Working Papers, March 2010. http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/downloaddoc.asp?id=795.
Harding, A., Rees, J., Sensier, M. (2010). Agglomeration and governance: Greater Manchester in a European perspective. New Economy Working Paper Series, no. NEWP: 05, October 2010. http://neweconomymanchester.com/stories/993-new_economy_working_papers_archive.
Hartog, J. (2000). Overeducation and earnings: where are we, where should we go? Economics of Education Review, 19(2), 131–147.
HM Government. (2010). The coalition: Our programme for government. London: Cabinet Office.
ILO. (1998). Resolution concerning the measurement of underemployment and inadequate employment situations adopted by the Sixteenth International Conference of Labour Statisticians. Geneva: International Labour Organization.
Keep Britain Working (2009). Press release. http://www.reedpressoffice.co.uk/newsArticle/Keep+Britain+Working+campaign+launched/.
Larkin, K. (2009). Public sector cities: Trouble ahead. London: Centre for Cities. http://www.centreforcities.org/assets/files/09-07-16%20Public%20sector%20cities.pdf.
Martin, R. (2012). Regional economic resilience, hysteresis and recessionary shocks. Journal of Economic Geography, 12(1), 1–32.
MIER (2009). Understanding labour markets, skills and talent. Manchester: Manchester Independent Economic Review. http://www.manchester-review.org.uk/.
ONS (2009). The impact of the recession on the labour market. ONS News Release, 14th May, 2009. http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/impact-of-the-recession-on-the-labour-market/impact-of-the-recession-on-the-labour-market/index.html.
Overman (2010). Election analysis, urban renewal and regional growth: Muddled objectives and mixed progress. Centre for Economic Performance. http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/download/ea014.pdf.
Overman, H. G., & Rice, P. (2008). Resurgent cities and regional economic performance. SERC Policy Paper 1. http://www.parisschoolofeconomics.eu/IMG/pdf/Overman2-PSE-MEEDM.pdf.
Rafferty, A. L. (2012). Ethnic penalties in graduate level over-education, unemployment and wages: evidence from Britain. Work, Employment and Society, 26(6), 987–1006.
Rice, P., Venables, A. J., & Patacchini, E. (2006). Spatial determinants of productivity: analysis for the regions of Great Britain. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 36, 727–752.
Rubery, J., & Rafferty, A. L. (2013). “Women and recession, revisited”. Work, Employment, and Society. Published first view online January 18, 2013. http://wes.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/01/18/0950017012460314
Rumberger, R. W. (1987). The impact of surplus schooling on productivity and earnings. Journal of Human Resources, 22(1), 24–50.
Sensier, M., & Artis, M. J. (2011). Tracking unemployment in Wales through recession and into recovery. Spatial Economics Research Centre Discussion Paper Series, London School of Economics, no. SERCDP0079. http://rlab.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/abstract.asp?index=3808.
Sensier, M., Curran, D., Artis, M. J. (2011). Investigating agglomeration economies in a Panel of European Cities and Regions. Spatial Economics Research Centre Discussion Paper Series, London School of Economics, no. SERCDP0078. http://rlab.lse.ac.uk/_new/publications/abstract.asp?index=3807.
Sloane, P. P., Battu, B., & Seaman, P. P. (1999). Overeducation, undereducation and the British labour market. Applied Economics, 31, 1437–1453.
Verdugo, R., & Verdugo, N. (1989). The impact of surplus schooling on earnings. Journal of Human Resources, 22(4), 690–695.
Walling, A., & Clancy, G. (2010). Underemployment in the UK labour market. ONS Economic and Labour Market Review, 4(2), 16–24.
Webber, C., & Swinney, P. (2010). Private sector cities: A new geography of opportunity. London: Centre for Cities. http://www.centreforcities.org/assets/files/10-06-07%20Private%20Sector%20Cities%20web.pdf.
Wilks-Heeg, S. (2011). You can’t play politics with people’s jobs and people’s services: localism and the politics of local government finance. Local Economy, 26(8), 635–651.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Phil Rees for help drafting the paper, Alison Manson for producing the map and the two anonymous referees for their comments. We are grateful to the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number RES-000-22-4304) for partly funding this research and to the Office for National Statistics and Economic and Social Data Services for making the UKLFS Special License micro data available.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rafferty, A., Rees, J., Sensier, M. et al. Growth and Recession: Underemployment and the Labour Market in the North of England. Appl. Spatial Analysis 6, 143–163 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-013-9089-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12061-013-9089-4