Search

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to argue that the application of social policy in the North East of England is often characterised by tension and conflict. The agencies and professionals charged with implementation of Westminster driven policies constantly seek to deploy their knowledge of local conditions in order to make them both practical and palatable.Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the region via established literature from history, geography, sociology and social policy. The paper gives illustrations via empirical work which has evaluated initiatives to improve the health of long term health-related benefit recipients and to sustain individuals in employment in the region.Findings Central to the paper’s argument is the notion of “biographies of place”. The core of this idea is that places have biographies in the same way as individuals and possess specific identities. These biographies have been shaped by the intersections between environment, history, culture and economic and social policy. The paper identifies the region’s economic development, subsequent decline and the alliance of labour politics and industrial employers around a common consensus that sought economic prosperity and social progress via a vision of “modernisation” as a key component of this biography.Originality/value The paper argues that an appreciation of these spatial biographies can result in innovative and more effective social policy interventions with the potential to address issues that affect entire localities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Regional Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper re-examines the link between new firm formation and subsequent employment growth. It investigates whether it is possible to have the wrong type of entrepreneurship—defined as new firm formation which leads to zero or even negative subsequent employment growth. It uses a very similar approach to that of Fritsch and Mueller (Regional Studies, 38(8), 961–976, 2004), confirming their findings that the employment impact of new firm formation is in three discrete phases. Then, using data for Great Britain, the paper shows the employment impact of new firm formation is significantly positive in the high-enterprise counties of Great Britain. However, for the low-enterprise counties, it shows that new firm formation has a negative effect on employment. Of the 15 low-enterprise regions, eight are Scottish (of nine Scottish regions in our data base) and three are North East Counties (of four). Our findings imply that having the “wrong type of entrepreneurship” is indeed possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contrasts the effects of trade, inward FDI and technological development upon the demand for skilled and unskilled workers in the UK. By focussing on industry level data panel data on smaller firms, the paper also contrasts these effects with those generated by large scale domestic investment. The analysis is placed within the broader context of shifts in British industrial policy, which has seen significant shifts from sectoral to horizontal measures and towards stressing the importance of SMEs, clusters and new technology, all delivered at the regional scale. This, however, is contrasted with continued elements of British and EU regional policy which have emphasised the attraction of inward investment in order to alleviate regional unemployment. The results suggest that such policies are not naturally compatible; that while both trade and FDI benefit skilled workers, they have adverse effects on the demand for unskilled labour in the UK. At the very least this suggests the need for a range of policies to tackle various targets (including in this case unemployment and social inclusion) and the need to integrate these into a coherent industrial strategy at various levels of governance, whether regional and/or national. This has important implications for the form of any ‘new’ industrial policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK has become a leading proponent of European restrictionalism and has focused its efforts on developing policy that excludes asylum seekers from mainstream society. Dispersal policy has focused upon sending asylum seekers to excluded urban areas where there is an excess of available housing. This paper discusses the potential impacts of this approach on the economic prosperity and social cohesion of UK dispersal areas and focuses specifically on new migrants who arrived under the NASS dispersal programme. It demonstrates that, whilst newly arrived asylum seekers and refugees (ASRs) have both skills and qualifications, they are currently experiencing high levels of unemployment and those who are employed are working in low-skilled jobs with earnings far below the average. The paper contends that the high levels of unemployment and underemployment currently experienced by ASRs may serve to exclude them from society in dispersal areas and in so doing exacerbate the general levels of social exclusion in those areas. It is argued that ASRs could offer new opportunities for deprived areas if initiatives were introduced to help them access work commensurate with their skills and qualifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of International Entrepreneurship is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper empirically examines the impact of fluctuations in international trade competitiveness on employment in the UK manufacturing sector over the period 1999–2010. We find statistically significant but economically small effects of a shock to international trade competitiveness on the level of employment. Our results show that the adjustment process in employment mainly works through job creation. We also find that compared to large firms, small firms contribute more toward job creation than job destruction. Our results that changes in GDP growth rate and average wages are significantly related to employment suggest that the UK labour market significantly responds to market forces. Finally, we find that the effect of changes in the real exchange rate on both job creation and job destruction differs between exporting and non-exporting firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the current discourse on regional economic development, cities have increasingly become conceptualized as “knowledge hubs” and centres of innovative activity. Yet, cities are also centres of consumer spending and are the location for a large number of consumption-based sectors, that is, retail, restaurants and entertainment. This paper examines the contribution of both these sectors to economic development of UK cities using data from the period 1995–2005. The results suggest that the proportion employed in knowledge-based sectors is significantly higher within cities than in the non-city regions, while there are no significant differences in the proportion employed in consumption-based sectors between cities and non-city regions. In addition, despite the fact that employment in the two sectors is broadly similar within cities, higher levels of knowledge-based employment within a city are positively correlated with higher levels of both Gross Value Added (GVA) per capita and the growth rate of overall GVA. However, knowledge-based employment varies widely between cities; therefore, while cities may be viewed as the centres of knowledge-based employment as a whole, not all UK cities can be said to be dominated by knowledge-based employment. Finally, while employment in consumption-based sectors may not be associated with superior growth rates, these sectors still account for a similar proportion of employment within UK cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pugh G. and Fairburn J. Evaluating the effects of the M6 Toll road on industrial land development and employment, Regional Studies. The paper reports the first evaluation of the wider economic effects of the M6 Toll, the UK's first toll motorway. Methodologically, it contributes to the literature evaluating the economic effects of new transport infrastructure by exploiting a new source of data, applying fresh econometric techniques, and triangulating quantitative results with interview data. It is concluded that the M6 Toll has caused a positive development effect at the sub-regional level. In addition, reasons are advanced why the development potential of new road infrastructure may be amplified rather than reduced by tolls. [image omitted] Pugh G. et Fairburn J. Evaluer les effets de la route a peage M6 sur le developpement des zones friches et l'emploi, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a presenter les premiers resultats quant aux retombees economiques de plus grande envergure de la route a peage M6, la premiere route a peage au Royaume-Uni. Du point de vue methodologique, l'article contribue a la documentation qui cherche a evaluer les retombees economiques de la nouvelle infrastucture routiere en employant une nouvelle source de donnees, en appliquant des techniques econometriques toutes nouvelles, et en triangulant les resultats quantitatifs avec les donnees provenant des interviews. On conclut que la route a peage M6 a eu des retombees positives sur le plan sous-regional. En plus, on avance des raisons qui expliquent pourquoi le potentiel de la nouvelle infrastructure routiere pourrait etre augmente plutot que reduit par le peage. Route a peage M6 Infrastructure routiere Developpement des zones friches Retombees economiques de plus grande envergure Evaluation Principes de fonds supplementaires et de deplacement Pugh G. und Fairburn J. Bewertung der Auswirkungen der mautpflichtigen Autobahn M6 auf die industrielle Landerschliessung und Beschaftigung, Regional Studies. In diesem Artikel berichten wir uber die erste Bewertung der breiteren wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der ersten mautpflichtigen Autobahn Grossbritanniens, M6 Toll. Als methodologischer Beitrag zur Literatur werden im Artikel die wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der neuen Verkehrsinfrastruktur bewertet, wofur eine neue Datenquelle genutzt, frische okonometrische Techniken angewandt und quantitative Ergebnisse mit Interviewdaten trianguliert werden. Wir ziehen den Schluss, dass die M6 Toll auf subregionaler Ebene eine positive Wirkung auf die Entwicklung gezeigt hat. Daruber hinaus fuhren wir Grunde an, warum sich das Entwicklungspotenzial einer neuen Strasseninfrastruktur durch eine Maut verbreitern statt verringern kann. Mautpflichtige M6-Autobahn Verkehrsinfrastruktur Industrielle Landerschliessung Breiterer wirtschaftlicher Nutzen Bewertung Erganzung und Verdrangung Pugh G. y Fairburn J. Valoracion de los efectos de los peajes de la autopista M6 en el desarrollo industrial y el empleo en zonas rurales, Regional Studies. En este articulo hacemos una primera evaluacion de los amplios efectos economicos de la primera autopista con peaje en el Reino Unido, la M6. Como aportacion metodologica a la literatura, en este articulo evaluamos los efectos economicos de la nueva infraestructura de transporte al sacar provecho de una nueva fuente de datos, aplicar las recientes tecnicas econometricas y triangular los resultados cuantitativos con datos de entrevistas. Concluimos que el peaje de la M6 ha causado un efecto de desarrollo positivo a nivel subregional. Ademas, explicamos los motivos por los que el posible desarrollo de una nueva infraestructura de carreteras podria ampliarse en vez de reducirse a causa del peaje. Peaje de la autopista M6 Infraestructura de transporte Desarrollo de terreno industrial Amplios beneficios economicos Evaluacion Adicionalidad y desplazamiento [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policy makers in the UK see the creative industries as a key sector for regenerating inner cities and stimulating flagging urban economies. The creative industries may raise productivity through spillovers or as part of the production processes of other firms. Creative firms may squeeze out other, less productive sectors. Highly skilled workers may be attracted to creative cities. Or the creative industries may thrive in growing cities with strong demand for their products. This paper tests the link between the creative industries and wage and employment growth in a panel of travel-to-work areas from 2003 to 2008. The results suggest the creative industries drive both wage and employment growth in other sectors. However, when only urban areas are considered the creative industries drive wage growth but do not increase employment. These findings are consistent with the idea that the creative industries help other sectors grow, but may squeeze out declining industries from urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a widespread interest in the economic development role played by 'Bohemian' occupations and the 'creative class'. It is believed that creative people and occupations generate external effects which foster economic growth. However, the degree to which these externalities affect production and consumption is as yet not clear. As part of this debate, we investigate the ability of creative individuals to internalize the rents accruing from creative occupations in comparison with other types of activities. In order to do this, the paper analyzes the employment opportunities and wages earned by graduates in artistic occupations (Bohemians) and compares them with those of non-Bohemians. Using a uniquely longitudinal dataset of UK university graduates, we examine these issues using a Mincer-type framework, both in the short and in medium term after graduation. Our findings suggest that there is a persistent gap between Bohemian and non-Bohemians in terms of both the wages earned and employment status. This observation sharpens the need to better understanding the nature and extent of the externalities associated with the creative class which remains an unresolved issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the nineteen-forties Britain entered the age of intensive national economic management. This required the government to 'manage the people' alongside the deployment of new policy instruments, requiring in turn a representation of economic arguments aimed at persuading a mass electorate. The result was a ubiquitous representation of economic issues in moral terms - a re-invention of ideas about the 'moral economy' which many historians of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries have seen as crucial to arguments about economic life in those years. This article analyses the origins, deployment and consequences of the use of such arguments in this new context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disabled people are increasingly being drawn into the UK Labour government's strategy to address area-based deprivation through projects which focus on employability as a means of tackling social exclusion. This paper draws on a case study of an employment project aimed at young people with learning difficulties funded as part of the Single Regeneration Budget, to explore how such projects operate in the context of area-based renewal, and with what gains, if any, for disabled people. The case study suggests that the perceived contribution of the project -- and people with learning difficulties -- to the area was as much about social regeneration, as building a local economy through the creation of active workers. Whilst being part of the SRB seemed to offer some opportunities for participation, the parameters of the policy itself -- including its spatiality -- acted to circumscribe some of the potential linkages with broader area renewal processes and the potential benefits for project participants, thus raising questions about New Labour's social inclusion agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While economic factors play a crucial role in determining election outcomes, the place of economic understanding in educating citizens is neither widely recognized nor substantially articulated in the literature. Although economic educators have frequently asserted that economic understanding is important to citizens’ education, they have not set out their case by engaging with the wider literature on citizenship education. This paper identifies two dimensions of an economic education that enable it to contribute to a ‘maximalist’ citizenship education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of women in the economic development of Great Britain. The Manpower Services Commission report in 1975 pointed out that women are an increasingly important element in the labor force. Total employment of women has grown from 32.5 per cent in 1961 to 36.7 per cent in 1971 and to just over 40 per cent in 1974. Women as a whole make a much needed contribution to the financial requirements of the family. The nature of the jobs girls hold in the labor market is not a function of their aspirations or motivations, but is directly related to the structure of the labor market itself and the form of division of labor in the society. The job market in all its aspects is not determined by the quality of the workers in it. Rather it is the nature of the enterprise itself which creates the jobs and prescribes the level of "skills" required for those jobs. A quarter of all women employed work in different sectors of industry and manufacturing but very few of the women can be classified as "skilled" workers in the accepted sense of the word.

This article is motivated by a very simple question – ‘what types of firms create the most jobs in the UK economy?’ One popular answer to this question has been High-Growth Firms (HGFs). These firms represent only a small minority – the ‘Vital 6%’ – of the UK business population yet, but have a disproportionate impact on job creation and innovation. We re-visit the discussion launched by the 2009 National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) reports, which identified the 6% figure and, using more recent data, confirm the headline conclusion for job creation: a small number of job-creating firms (mostly small firms) are responsible for a significant amount of net job creation in the United Kingdom. Adopting our alternative preferred analytical approach, which involves tracking the growth performance of cohorts of start-ups confirms this conclusion; however, we find an even smaller number of job-creating firms are responsible for a very significant proportion of job creation. We conclude by considering the question – ‘what are the implications for policy choices?’ [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There is an enduring belief by UK policymakers that a large higher education sector is an important driver of long-run economic growth, which has been part of the narrative since the Robbins Report. Back then, there was plenty of conjecture and assumption, but strikingly little concrete evidence to support such a belief. This paper asks whether the evidence base has strengthened in the 50 years since it was published. It looks at a number of different growth equation specifications and, using international education data, attempts to draw out the contribution of both the number of, and the growth in, graduates since the 1960s. There are three main findings. Firstly, many growth relationships, including those estimated elsewhere in the literature, are quite sensitive to the countries included – which often depends on the variables used – and time period of analysis. I argue that, given these issues, growth equations should always be treated with caution. Secondly, and remembering this caveat, neither the increase nor the initial level of higher education is found to have a statistically significant relationship with growth rates both in the OECD and worldwide. This result is robust to numerous different specifications. Thirdly, there is some evidence, consistent with the existing literature, that levels of technical skills at the end of compulsory education matter. The employment of higher level technical skills (proxied by the number of employed researchers in an economy) is also a strong predictor of growth. This gives a possible mechanism linking the output of (some) of the higher education sector with economic growth. However, it does not imply that mass higher education necessarily leads to higher growth. This depends on the skills produced by an expanding tertiary sector and their utilisation (or underutilisation) in the jobs available to increasing numbers of graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In recent years a series of high-profile flagship plant closures and short-lived investment projects across peripheral regions in the United Kingdom provided a stark reminder of the potential fallibility of peripheral region development strategies based upon inward investment. Nevertheless, inward investment promotion remains a common component within the economic development strategies of UK peripheral regions. In particular, capturing the potential positive labour market contributions offered by flagship projects has been used by policymakers to legitimate the continued pursuit of inward investment. In this paper I move beyond the static analysis of employment out-comes of investment episodes by investigating the detailed structure of labour-market processes and imprints across workforce formation and dissolution. I use the example of the fluctuating and youthful history of the semiconductor fabrication industry in the old industrial region of the North East of England to illustrate the spatial, occupational, and sectoral labour-market imprints of investment episodes. Using the example of two large-scale high-technology inward-investment projects, Fujitsu and Siemens, I expand our understanding of both the labour-market dynamics associated with volatile flagship investment and the policy implications for peripheral regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Kaldor's first and second laws have been examined. It was found that the 'remarkable correlation' between the growth of GDP and industry is largely illusory. When the preferable specification of the relationship between the growth of the non-industrial sector and industry was estimated, it was found that the good fit is largely determined by two extreme observations: Japan and the UK. This finding does not imply that industry is not an important determinant of the growth of the rest of the economy nor that the present de-industrialization of the UK will not have adverse effects on the future level of employment. Rather it suggests that the relationship is more complex that would seem from the simple bivariate regression estimated by Kaldor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kaldor (1966) asserted that the slow rate of economic growth of the United Kingdom was due mainly to the shortage of labor resulting from "economic maturity". Kaldor (1975), in a subsequent comment on Rowthorn's (1975a) article, abandoned this reasoning and presented the strict Verdoorn law as
(1) p=+q with >0
and his own presentation of Verdoorn's law as
(2) e=+q with 0<<1 and e=q-p
where p is the rate of growth of productivity, q is the rate of growth of output, e is the rate of growth of employment, and ,, and are parameters.
The main purpose of this paper is to argue that both sets of results are subject to simultaneous equations bias and that mis-specification of estimated equations leads to incorrect estimates and wrong conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing concern in many developed economies that the benefits of economic growth are not shared equitably. This is particularly the case in the UK, where economic growth has been geographically uneven and often biased towards already affluent cities. Yet there is relatively little evidence on the relationship between growth and poverty in the UK. This article addresses this gap with an analysis of the links between economic growth and poverty in British cities between 2000 and 2008. We find little evidence that output growth reduced poverty. While growth was associated with wage increases at the top of the distribution, it was not associated with wage growth below the median. And there was no relationship between economic growth and the low skilled employment rate. These results suggest that growth in this period was far from inclusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, the increasingly dominant assumption is that the big cities are the motor of regional economic growth. This city-centric view stands in marked contrast to the pre-2000 assumption that Britain's largest cities were actually the main focus of declining employment and population. Drawing on a range of theoretical ideas and evidence, this article questions the view that the big cities are the key drivers of UK regional growth. It recognises that there have been important changes in trends, notably in London, but argues that the geography of recent economic trends in the UK is largely one of regional divergence. There is scant evidence that the big provincial cities perform better than other places--in fact, rather the opposite. The relationship between the big cities and their hinterlands is one of interdependence. The article also argues that the performance of UK cities is deeply intertwined with the structure of UK economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The graduates' startup formation process represents a possible future role for universities in the form of active-participation , when speaking of the regional development. Tracking the path of entrepreneurial graduates who are moving between home, university, and employment, allows us to identify the specific motives that determine their migration decisions. The choice of location of graduate entrepreneurs is naturally affected by the context of their home region, as the availability of resources leads to a rising entrepreneurial intention. Similarly, the location of the startups flourish in densely populated urban regions, as well as in wealthier locations. At the same time, the vibrancy of the local entrepreneurial ecosystems is enhanced through mutual exchange and collaboration; and the higher the number of startups already present in a region, the higher the probability becomes for interaction and creativity. A leading tendency, not least to be mentioned, is that the preference to start new businesses is connected to highly-skilled creative sectors of the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FaggianA., ComunianR., JewellS. and KellyU. Bohemian graduates in the UK: disciplines and location determinants of creative careers,Regional Studies. The human capital and regional economic development literature has become increasingly interested in the role of the ‘Bohemian occupations’ on economic growth. By using UK higher education student micro-data, the characteristics and location determinants of creative (Bohemian) graduates are investigated. Three specific subgroups are examined: creative arts and design graduates; creative media graduates; and other creative graduates. It is found that these disciplines influence the ability of graduates to enter creative occupations and to be successful in the labour market. The role of geography is also highlighted, with London and the South East emerging as hubs for studying and providing Bohemian graduates with more labour market opportunities. Clase creativa?Capital humano?Estudios superiores?Mercado de trabajo?Economía regional FaggianA., ComunianR., JewellS. and KellyU. ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? “???????????” ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????? FaggianA., ComunianR., JewellS. et KellyU. Les diplômés au Royaume-Uni et les professions bohèmes: les filières et les facteurs de localisation des carrières créatives,Regional Studies. La documentation sur le capital humain et l'aménagement du territoire a porté de plus en plus d'intérêt au rôle des ‘professions bohèmes’ quant à la croissance économique. En employant des données micro-économiques pour le Royaume-Uni auprès des étudiants dans l'enseignement supérieur, on examine les caractéristiques et les facteurs de localisation des diplômés à l'esprit créatif (à savoir, bohèmes). On examine trois sous-groupes particuliers: les diplômés des arts créatifs et du design; les diplômés des médias créatifs; et d'autres diplômés à l'esprit créatif. Il s'avère que ces filières influencent la capacité des diplômés de s'insérer dans des professions créatives et de réussir sur le marché du travail. On souligne aussi le rôle de la géographie, alors que Londres et le Sud-Est ressortissent comme le noyau pour les études créatives et mettent à la disponibilié des diplômés bohèmes davantage de possibilités d'emploi. Classe créative?Capital humain?Enseignement supérieur?Marché du travail?Économie régionale FaggianA., ComunianR., JewellS. und KellyU. Hochschulabsolventen kreativer Studiengänge in Großbritannien: Disziplinen und Standortdeterminanten von kreativen Berufen,Regional Studies. In der Literatur über Humankapital und regionale Wirtschaftsentwicklung wird der Rolle der kreativen Berufe für das Wirtschaftswachstum zunehmend Beachtung geschenkt. Wir untersuchen anhand von Mikrodaten über britische Hochschulstudenten die Merkmale und Standortdeterminanten von Hochschulabsolventen kreativer Studiengänge. Untersucht werden drei spezifische Untergruppen: Hochschulabsolventen im Bereich Kunst und Design, Hochschulabsolventen im Bereich der kreativen Medien sowie Hochschulabsolventen in weiteren kreativen Studiengängen. Wir stellen fest, dass sich diese Disziplinen auf die Chancen der Absolventen bei der Suche nach einem kreativen Beruf und der erfolgreichen Teilnahme am Arbeitsmarkt auswirken. Ebenso wird die Rolle der Geografie hervorgehoben, wobei sich London und der Südosten als Zentren für kreative Studiengänge sowie als Gebiete mit mehr Beschäftigungschancen für Hochschulabsolventen im kreativen Bereich erweisen. Kreative Klasse?Humankapital?Hochschulbildung?Arbeitsmarkt?Regionalwirtschaft? FaggianA., ComunianR., JewellS. y KellyU. Licenciados bohemios en el Reino Unido: disciplinas y determinantes de ubicación de carreras creativas,Regional Studies. En la bibliografía sobre el capital humano y el desarrollo económico regional se menciona cada vez más el papel de las ‘ocupaciones bohemias’ en el crecimiento económico. Con ayuda de microdatos de estudiantes de estudios superiores en el Reino Unido, investigamos las características y los determinantes de ubicación de los licenciados creativos (bohemios). Examinamos tres subgrupos específicos: licenciados en artes creativas y diseño; licenciados en medios creativos; y otros licenciados creativos. Observamos que estas disciplinas influyen en la capacidad de los licenciados de dedicarse a ocupaciones creativas y tener éxito en el mercado laboral. También destacamos el papel de la geografía, siendo Londres y el sureste del país los centros para estudiar y ofrecer más oportunidades del mercado laboral a licenciados bohemios. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We explore factors affecting workplace survival and growth using nationally representative panel data for the British private sector. We address five policy-relevant questions. First, are young workplaces more vulnerable to closure and low growth than older ‘like’ workplaces? Second, are stand-alone workplaces more vulnerable than those belonging to multi-site firms? Third, do firms’ human capital investments enhance survival and growth prospects? Fourth, do those who innovate go on to be more successful? Fifth, is there any evidence of creative job destruction? We discuss the implications for policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an examination of the patterns and motivations behind parish apprenticeship in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century London. It stresses continuity in outlook from parish officials binding children, which involved placements in both the traditional and industrializing sectors of the economy. Evidence on the ages, employment types, and locations of 3,285 pauper apprentices bound from different parts of London between 1767 and 1833 indicates a variety of local patterns. The analysis reveals a pattern of youthful age at binding, a range of employment experiences, and parish-specific links to particular trades and manufactures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses economic forecasts for Great Britain in 2011 and 2012. Yearly growth rate is predicted to escalate to 2% in 2011 and 2.25% in 2012. General government spendings is expected to drop about .75% from gross domestic product growth in 2011 and 2012. In 2011, growth in employment is anticipated, but will be inadequate to absorb hikes in the labor force. Forecasts for prices and earnings, demand, household sector, supply, public finances and accumulation are discussed.

Devolution of powers to Scotland has accentuated pre-existing divergence from the rest of the UK with respect to education, training and career guidance provision. Scotland now has an all-age national careers service—Careers Scotland. It is suggested that it is unlikely that a national, publicly-funded careers agency would have been established in the absence of devolution. The article outlines the development of career guidance in Scotland over the last 25 years and how the pre-existing Scottish context and the new context of devolution have impacted upon it. The role of Careers Scotland and its relationship with other providers of career guidance in Scotland are examined. Other key issues considered include: the allocation of resources based on need; relationships with local authorities and schools; and training and professional identities in an increasingly diverse UK guidance context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history of careers guidance in Northern Ireland has many similarities but also many differences from experiences in other parts of the UK. The Careers Service has remained within central government for the duration, and this has provided a degree of consistency in service provision over time. In line with the Department for Employment and Learning's Corporate Plan for 2005–2008, the new Careers Service for Northern Ireland will aspire to be an all-age guidance service. The development of careers education provision in the education sector is examined, as is the emergence of adult guidance as a province-wide provision. Issues considered include staffing, training, evaluation, targeting need, the merits and demerits of locating the Careers Service within the Civil Service, and potentially conflicting responsibilities to clients and to the employing department. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK Sustainable Development Strategy requires that society strive to make prudent use of natural resources so as to protect the environment and maintain high and stable levels of economic growth and employment. The Waste Strategy for England and Wales emphasizes the need to reduce the amount of waste produced through the adoption of waste minimization methodology. Waste minimization clubs have been a key element in the UK programme to introduce more sustainable practice into industry and commerce. Northamptonshire, a county in the East Midlands of England, has benefited from 14 waste minimization/resource efficiency projects, within a county programme, that have run between 1998 and 2001. This is the largest number in any county in England. This has been possible because of the formation of a large and inclusive partnership that contains all the key local and regional players. Performance indicators have been developed to direct the county programme as it strives to introduce more sustainable waste management practice. The Northamptonshire model has led to a catalysed uptake of sustainable waste management practice and has resulted in greatly improved competitiveness in some 270 companies, thereby contributing to the maintenance of stable levels of economic activity. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a study to determine cause and effect of sectoral employment change and to investigate the range of relationships that emerge. The three objectives are: firstly, to explore the diversification process in Britain from 1978 to 1991; secondly, to examine the relationship between diversification and growth in the context of the national economy; and thirdly, to examine specific places in the urban system to determine relationships between diversification and growth. These should provide useful insights into employment structures and the restructuring of the urban system from 1978 to 1991. In previous research on diversity and diversification there seems to have been a special emphasis on the relationship between growth and diversification. These phenomena have been associated because it was considered that as city size increased there should be greater degrees of diversity, thus diversification over time. There are no immediately obvious regional patterns of diversification when one examines the British urban system from 1978 to 1991. Upon closer inspection, however, one finds that most of the largest centres throughout the urban system have diversified at the greatest pace; this is in keeping with the expectation that large cities should be becoming more diverse.

This article comments on the possible outcome of job creation programs in Great Britain. In the broader context of schemes to reduce juvenile unemployment we have already voiced our view that the programmes have more to do with politics than with young people. There is a large body of opinion which shares this view and has taken the trouble to tell us so and also to encourage us to go on exposing the cynicism and folly behind much of the government action. In the policy recommendation of CBI, the mouthpiece of large-scale employers, it states: Many short-term measures have been taken to alleviate unemployment. Some, such as those providing training or work experience for school leavers or re-training for the adult unemployed, make economic sense as an investment for the future. Schemes with positive objectives of this kind can represent the best use of counter-cyclical expenditure hut only if they relate to genuine future requirements. Indiscriminate expansion of training is no solution, nor is one to be found at present in the proposals for collective funding now being discussed. This case is by no means unique and the situation is not new. It is very well known to trainers but the organizations sponsoring job creation schemes ran into the problem quite unaware that it existed. The problem stems from having two approaches to apprenticeship and, by extension, to other forms of preparation for work life.