---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1999 17:54:52 From: Ivan Turok <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: New Research Continuing jobs shortage is key reason for unemployment in cities, says report Policy makers are today urged to acknowledge that a shortage of jobs, not poor skills or motivation, is the main reason why there are continuing high levels of unemployment in many of Britain�s major cities. The warning that many national policies wrongly diagnose the urban �jobs gap� comes in a study by researchers at the University of Glasgow, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Providing the first systematic analysis of urban employment trends for more than a decade, the report shows that there has been a net loss of 500,000 jobs in the 20 biggest cities since 1981, compared with a net gain in jobs of 1.7 million elsewhere. Other key findings are that: � The worst-affected areas have been core districts of the major conurbations � especially Clydeside, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, where the loss of manufacturing jobs among men has been especially severe. � Service industries have grown more slowly in cities than elsewhere, including sectors that make up the emerging �knowledge� economy including financial, business and consumer services. � Employment growth among the cities, particularly in jobs taken by women, has been most marked in certain �free-standing� cities � notably Edinburgh and Cardiff. � Better-performing cities in terms of male manual jobs are those that have invested in their physical fabric and infrastructure, and made land and premises available for inward investors and expanding businesses. Using the most recent data available to compare employment trends with peaks and troughs in the economic cycle, the study finds a steady and continuing divergence between the major cities and the rest of the country. Between 1981 and 1996, there was a net loss of 12 per cent in the core areas of major conurbations; although employment in their outer areas remained more stable. Another striking contrast over the same period was between the net loss of 212,000 jobs in Greater London and the net growth of 556,000 jobs in the rest of the South East. Ivan Turok and Nicola Edge, the report�s co-authors, suggest that a period of overall employment expansion between 1993 and 1996 may have prompted speculation about revival in the great cities. But they argue that the improvement was a product of an upswing in the economic cycle rather than a reversal of previous trends. The cities� share of national employment actually fell. Prof Turok said: �A sizeable �jobs gap� continues to exist between the number of people who want work in our major cities and the number of jobs that are available. National economic growth cannot bridge that gap on its own. Nor can the New Deal and other policies that relate entirely to supply-side measures such as training, employment advice, stronger work incentives and more childcare. �The urban jobs gap poses a threat to economic growth and social cohesion as well as the functioning of the labour market which policy makers would be foolish to ignore. There is a pressing need for economic, social and urban regeneration policies that give greater emphasis to expanding labour demand in the cities.� Note to Editors The jobs gap in Britain�s cities: employment loss and labour market consequences by Ivan Turok and Nicola Edge is published in association with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation by The Policy Press and available from Biblios Publisher�s Distribution Services, Star Road, Partridge Green, West Sussex, RH13 8LD, price �13.95, plus �2 p&p.. A summary of findings is available, free of charge, from JRF at The Homestead, 40 Water End, York YO30 6WP or from the JRF Web site: www.jrf.org.uk Professor Ivan Turok Department of Urban Studies University of Glasgow 25 Bute Gardens Glasgow G12 8RS Scotland, UK tel: (+44) (0)141 330 6274 fax: (+44) (0)141 330 4983
