Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

The Recent Performance of the UK Labour Market

Contents:

Author Info

  • Stephen Nickell
  • Glenda Quintini

Abstract

We consider both the overall macroeconomic performance of the UK labour market since 1997, as well as some of the underlying micro problems, particularly those facing unskilled workers, On the macro front, we have seen unemployment decline to its lowest level for a generation without excessive inflationary pressure. The main factors behind this decline in equilibrium unemployment stem from actions taken by the previous government. Changes introduced in the labour market since 1997 are likely to have only small effects on equilibrium unemployment. Underlying this favourable aggregate labour-market performance are serious problems facing unskilled men who have seen dramatic increases in their unemployment and inactivity rates, concentrated particularly in Wales and the northern regions of Britain. The policy response since 1997 has focused on encouraging the unskilled into work (the New Deal) while simultaneously raising the rewards for working (the minimum wage, tax credits). These policies have had a positive impact on youth employment and have significantly reduced child poverty. So far, however, existing policies do not seem likely to have a serious impact on the high levels of worklessness among unskilled men. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.

Download Info

To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
1. Check below under "Related research" whether another version of this item is available online.
2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

Bibliographic Info

Article provided by Oxford University Press in its journal Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

Volume (Year): 18 (2002)
Issue (Month): 2 (June)
Pages: 202-220

as in new window
Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:18:y:2002:i:2:p:202-220

Contact details of provider:
Web page: http://oxrep.oupjournals.org/

Related research

Keywords:

References

No references listed on IDEAS
You can help add them by filling out this form.

Citations

Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
as in new window

Cited by:
  1. Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald & Nicholas Oulton & Sylaja Srinivasan, 2003. "The Case of the Missing Productivity Growth: Or, Does Information technology explain why productivity accelerated in the United States but not the United Kingdom?," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2021, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
  2. J. Shackleton, 2007. "Britain’s Labor Market Under the Blair Governments," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 454-476, July.
  3. Alena Bicakova, 2006. "Market vs. Institutions: The Trade-off Between Unemployment and Wage Inequality Revisited," Economics Working Papers ECO2006/31, European University Institute.
  4. Olivier Pierrard & Henri Sneessens, 2004. "The European Labour Markets - Aggregate Unemployment and Relative Wage Rigidities," CESifo Forum, Ifo Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 5(1), pages 19-23, October.
  5. Barbara Petrongolo, 2007. "What Are the Long-Term Effects of UI? Evidence from the UK JSA Reform," CEP Discussion Papers dp0841, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
  6. Susanto Basu & John G. Fernald & Nicholas Oulton & Sylaja Srinivasan, 2003. "The Case of the Missing Productivity Growth: Or, Does Information Technology Explain why Productivity Accelerated in the US but not the UK?," NBER Working Papers 10010, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  7. Petrongolo, Barbara, 2008. "The long-term effects of job search requirements: Evidence from the UK JSA reform," CEPR Discussion Papers 7067, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  8. Lars Calmfors & Giancarlo Corsetti & Seppo Honkapohja & John Kay & Willi Leibfritz & Gilles Saint-Paul & Hans-Werner Sinn & Xavier Vives, 2004. "Pay-setting Systems in Europe: On-going Development and Possible Reforms," EEAG Report on the European Economy, CESifo Group Munich, vol. 0, pages 61-83, October.

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:18:y:2002:i:2:p:202-220

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Oxford University Press) or (Christopher F. Baum).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.