Health And Unemployment In The UK
Last week’s ONS figures showed the UK remains mired in the longest recession since records began.
This came as an unwelcome surprise not only to the red-faced economists who had predicted the return of growth over the past quarter but also for local and national policymakers charged with mitigating the impacts of recession and ensuring the fastest possible return to economic growth.
Previous research by The Work Foundation has highlighted the disproportionate impact of the recession on the places least well equipped to deal with major economic shocks. Unemployment has risen fastest in places where it was higher before the onset of recession; in areas dependent on traditional, low value added manufacturing industries and in places where a greater than average proportion of the workforce have no or low qualifications and hence fewer transferrable skills. It is no surprise that these factors are all deeply intertwined.
New analysis for a keynote speech at the Regional Studies Association Winter Conference in November adds another deeply troubling dimension to the vicious and challenging set of circumstances facing policymakers in places such as Merthyr Tydfill, Blaenau Gwent, Easington and Sedgefield. In line with our many findings about the least well prepared places being hit hardest by the recession, areas of greater ill health (as measured by the proportion of the working age population claiming Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance) before the onset of the recession have tended to see greater increases in unemployment (measured by the increase in the proportion of the working age population claiming Job Seekers Allowance) during it.
This can clearly be seen in the chart and map (please see the links) in which places where more than 10% of the working age population was claiming IB or SDA in August 2007 are ringed in red. The concentrations of ill health and higher increases in unemployment in the West of Scotland, North East, North West and South Wales should be a particular cause for concern at local and national level.
Given the established link between unemployment and physical and mental health problems, places such as Merthyr Tydfil, Stoke and Blaenau Gwent are likely to experience even more significant health problems in the future, with clear implications for wider economic success and prosperity. Even when the UK as a whole returns to growth, it seems likely that the recovery period in the worst affected places will be painful, protracted and costly, both socially and economically.
Topics: Britain, economic downturn, economic growth, Economy, England, global financial crisis, Governance, jobs, manufacturing, ONS, policy, recession, UK, unemployment, United Kingdom, Work Foundation
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