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The Real North-South Divide? Regional Gradients in UK Male Non-employment

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  • Michael Anyadike-Danes

Abstract

Anyadike-Danes M. (2004) The real north-south divide? Regional gradients in UK male non-employment, Reg. Studies 38, 85-95. Unemployment rates across the UK's regions are now more similar than they have been for many years. But has the longstanding north-south gap in labour market performance really narrowed? Interregional variation in non-employment rates, a more revealing indicator than unemployment rate relativities, suggests that it has not. In the relatively depressed North East of England, the proportion of working age males without a job is twice as large as in the relatively prosperous South East. Even more striking is the north-south gradient in the composition of non-employment, quantified here using compositional data analysis. The share of the non-employed not working 'for reasons of sickness or disability' is strongly and positively correlated with the non-employment rate, and since the share of non-employed who are sick and disabled rises with age, these two influences combine to produce some extraordinary gradients across the UK's regions. For example, almost half of all 60 to 64 year old males in North East England are not working by reason of sickness or disability - three times the proportion in the South East. Evidently convergence of regional labour market performance should not be included amongst the benefits claimed for the UK's widely admired 'flexible' labour market regime.

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  • Michael Anyadike-Danes, 2004. "The Real North-South Divide? Regional Gradients in UK Male Non-employment," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(1), pages 85-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:regstd:v:38:y:2004:i:1:p:85-95
    DOI: 10.1080/0034340031000162235
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. A. E. Green, 1999. "Insights into unemployment and non-employment in Europe using alternative measures," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 453-464.
    2. A E Green, 1995. "A Comparison of Alternative Measures of Unemployment," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 27(4), pages 535-556, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ross Mackay & Jonathan Williams, 2005. "Thinking about need: Public spending on the regions," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 815-828.
    2. Andrew E. Burke & Michael A. Nolan & Felix R. FitzRoy, 2006. "Education and Regional Job Creation by the Self-Employed: The English North-South Divide," Papers on Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy 2006-07, Max Planck Institute of Economics, Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy Group.
    3. Ian Shuttleworth & Anne Green, 2011. "Spatial Mobility Intentions, the Labour Market and Incapacity Benefit Claimants," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 48(5), pages 911-927, April.
    4. Andrew Burke & Felix Fitzroy & Michael Nolan, 2009. "Is there a North-South Divide in Self-employment in England?," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(4), pages 529-544.
    5. Duncan McVicar, 2006. "Why do disability benefit rolls vary between regions? A review of the evidence from the USA and the UK," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(5), pages 519-533.
    6. Terence Mills, 2010. "Forecasting compositional time series," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 673-690, June.
    7. Christina Beatty & Steve Fothergill, 2023. "The persistence of hidden unemployment among incapacity claimants in large parts of Britain," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 38(1), pages 42-60, February.

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