The Future of UK Employment in a Post-Pandemic World

Dr Abigail Taylor and Ben Harrison analyse the impact of the COVID-19 on employment to date before discussing what the future might hold. It also introduces the Social Policy Association’s ‘Employment Policy in Context’ group, explaining the group’s aims, plans for the coming year and how to get involved. This blog was first posted on … Continue reading “The Future of UK Employment in a Post-Pandemic World”

Economic Resilience to Shocks: Implications for Labour Markets

In this blog, Tasos Kitsos introduces the latest output for the WM REDI project Economic resilience to shocks: implications for labour markets. The term economic resilience has become popular during the 2008 crisis and remained at the forefront of research and policymaking since. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic makes resilience more relevant than … Continue reading “Economic Resilience to Shocks: Implications for Labour Markets”

Labour Market Challenges: The Impact of COVID-19 on Ethnic Minority Groups in Birmingham

Professor Anne Green discusses the labour market challenges ethnic minority groups in Birmingham faced before COVID-19 and how the virus has exacerbated these issues. This blog post has been produced to provide insight into the findings of the Birmingham Economic Review. The Birmingham Economic Review 2020 is produced by City-REDI / WM REDI, University of … Continue reading “Labour Market Challenges: The Impact of COVID-19 on Ethnic Minority Groups in Birmingham”

COVID-19 and Job Matching

In this blog, Professor Anne Green investigates the short and long-term impacts of Matching Interventions, one of the key policies in tackling the current labour market crisis. As in previous recessions, Covid-19 brings a massive economic shock across the country but with locally specific impacts. What is different about the current recession is that the … Continue reading “COVID-19 and Job Matching”

Capitalising on the Growing Army of Volunteers in the West Midlands During COVID-19

In this Blog, George Bramley discusses how volunteering can help people find, or get back into, long term employment. Volunteering as a response to COVID-19 There has been significant media coverage on the number of NHS Volunteer respondents recruited in response to COVID-19 before recruitment was suspended at 750,000 volunteers nationally so that applications could … Continue reading “Capitalising on the Growing Army of Volunteers in the West Midlands During COVID-19”

COVID-19: Unemployment and Labour Market Policy Priorities

A Brief History On 14 April 2020, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published a scenario in which the UK would see a real GDP fall of 35% in Q2 2020, followed by a quick bounce back. Under this same scenario, unemployment rises by more than 2 million to a total of 3.4 million (10%) … Continue reading “COVID-19: Unemployment and Labour Market Policy Priorities”

Changing Apprenticeships: Challenges and Opportunities

This blog post has been produced to provide insight into the findings of the Birmingham Economic Review. The Birmingham Economic Review 2019 is produced by City-REDI, University of Birmingham and the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, with contributions from the West Midlands Growth Company. It is an in-depth exploration of the economy of England’s second … Continue reading “Changing Apprenticeships: Challenges and Opportunities”

Understanding Productivity and Prosperity: Regional Skills Mismatches and Inclusive Growth for the West Midlands

Chloe Billing reflects on this year’s Regional Studies Association’s annual conference in Santiago de Compostela. On the 6th June, I had the opportunity to present the findings from the first phase of City REDI’s project on ‘Productivity and Prosperity’ at the RSA conference in Santiago. Details of the ESRC funded project and the wider team … Continue reading “Understanding Productivity and Prosperity: Regional Skills Mismatches and Inclusive Growth for the West Midlands”

Immigration in Developed Economies

Last year, economists across the political spectrum in the United States signed a petition to the US government in support of an immigration policy that would welcome more rather than fewer immigrants.  However, the current US administration seemed to feel that the opinions of these “so-called experts” (a similar denigration of economists as in the … Continue reading “Immigration in Developed Economies”

West Midlands socio-economic health check: Labour market

The middle of April has brought us the latest release of the Annual Population Survey. The survey is the most comprehensive socio-economic picture we have for a range of geographies from the national to the local level. In this blog, we will examine the information on labour markets for January to December 2017 and compare … Continue reading “West Midlands socio-economic health check: Labour market”