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This article focuses on the impact of economic conditions on the industrial relations in Great Britain. The year 1988 was a year of strong economic growth. Most macroeconomic forecasts at the end of 1987, including those of the Treasury. had been anticipating a significant slowdown of economic expansion in the year to come. Outside the labour market, inflation began to rise somewhat by the mid-year and the current account of the balance of payments went steadily deeper into deficit. Most of the labour market indicators in 1988 show a continuation of trends that started earlier and accelerated in 1987. The rate of decline in unemployment seems to have peaked in the second half of 1987 but was still high in 1988, unemployment is estimated to have fallen by almost 360,000, nearly 12 per cent of the total, in the first ten months of 1988. Firm official estimates for the number of self-employed go upto June 1987. Estimates for more recent periods are based on the assumption that the average rate of increase between 1981 and 1987 has continued.