Key findings

  • The decline in the performance of the region relative to the UK and London needs to be halted
  • Although it can provide flexibility for some workers, more needs to be done to address ‘atypical’ work
  • The pay squeeze means that living standards are stagnating in the region
  • Encouraging progression in a world where pay differentials are compressed at the bottom of the labour market
  • Tackling occupational polarisation for younger workers

Further reading

Labour Market Outlook Q3 2021
Prospects for unemployment after the Job Retention Scheme
·
Hannah Slaughter, Greg Thwaites
Football went to Rome, holidays came home
The impact of ‘staycations’ on the UK’s labour market
·
Nye Cominetti
Workertech and low pay
An overview of research on low-paid workers in the UK
·
Nye Cominetti, Louise Marston, Lalitha Try
Stephen Clarke
Stephen Clarke Senior Economic Analyst