Where you live and work in England can have a significant impact on your ability to access secure and well-paid work. Indeed, England is one of the OECD’s most spatially unequal countries in terms of its economic development and social and health outcomes. These inequalities have emerged over time in the context of historical, economic and political processes, such as rapid deindustrialisation. Successive UK governments have tried to tackle this with little success, resulting in an economy where some cities and areas are thriving while others are struggling with persistently high rates of worklessness and a high proportion of the workforce in low paid and severely insecure work. Research from the Work Foundation shows that Mayoral Combined Authorities – an English structure where a mayor leads a cabinet made up of leaders of local authorities under their jurisdiction, with wider legislative powers – in England have unique insights and policy options that can be leveraged alongside national action to improve the quality and security of jobs in local economies. Given that Lancashire’s devolution deal is now underway, the findings and policy options put forward in this report are highly relevant for policymakers and academics in and around Lancaster University. LOCAL ISSUES The Work Foundation estimates that in the first half of 2022, 19.4% (2.2 million) of the workforce in the English Mayoral Combined Authorities was in severely insecure work – this means experiencing involuntary part-time or involuntary temporary work, or several forms of insecure work at the same time. This is termed ‘severe insecurity’ as it is where negative effects are most likely to be concentrated. Some of these effects include a higher risk of job loss, a lack of progression in work, and a higher risk of experiencing anxiety and depression and other impacts on wellbeing. This suggests that insecure work has a wider impact on people’s lives. The research proposes to use insecure work as a key indicator for analysing local labour markets, alongside the number of jobseekers and the number of people who are out of work and not looking for work. It not only informs us about the quality and security of employment, but also about the likely experiences and the vulnerabilities of workers experiencing this. This is useful in examining differences between Mayoral Combined Authorities as well as within the MCAs. In many places, the differences in the levels of severely insecure work align with wider labour market dynamics. For instance, in Tees Valley, Middlesbrough is a clear insecurity hotspot, with rates of severely insecure work standing at 29.8%, which is ten percentage points higher than the national average. The rates of inactivity (28.1%) and unemployment (5%) are well above the national average too. 44 |
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