Almost the whole of the British coal industry has closed since the early 1980s. The authors assess the extent to which the areas once dependent on coalmining have adapted to this job loss. A ‘labour-market accounting’ approach is employed to document the principal changes in employment, unemployment, commuting, and activity rates among men in the English and Welsh coalfields over the period to 2004, building on previous similar research covering the period 1981–91. The authors point to a strong recovery of employment among men in these areas, though this is not yet on a scale to offset all the coal job losses and there is important variation between areas. There is also evidence of extensive and continuing ‘hidden unemployment’.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlcockPBeattyCFothergillSMacmillanRYeandleS, 2003Work to Welfare: How Men Become Detached from the Labour Market (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
2.
BeattyCFothergillS, 1996, “Labour market adjustment in areas of chronic industrial decline: The case of the UK coalfields”Regional Studies30627–640.
3.
BeattyCFothergillS, 1997Unemployment and the Labour Market in Rural Development Areas Rural Research Series No. 30, Rural Development Commission, London.
4.
BeattyCFothergillS, 2004, “Economic change and the labour market in Britain's seaside towns”Regional Studies38461–480.
5.
BeattyCFothergillS, 2005, “The diversion from ‘unemployment’ to ‘sickness’ across British regions and districts”Regional Studies39837–854.
6.
BeattyCFothergillSLawlessP, 1997, “Geographical variation in the labour-market adjustment process: The UK coalfields 1981–91”Environment and Planning A292041–2060.
7.
BeggIMooreB CRhodesJ, 1986, “Economic and social change in urban Britain and the inner cities”, in Critical Issues in Urban Economic Development Ed. HausnerV (Clarendon Press, Oxford) pp 10–49.
8.
BennettKBeynonHHudsonR, 2000Coalfields Regeneration: Dealing with the Consequences of Industrial Decline (Policy Press, Bristol).
9.
Cambridge Economic Policy Group, 1980, “Urban and regional policy with provisional regional accounts for 1996–78”Cambridge Economic Policy Review number 6.
10.
Cambridge Economic Policy Group, 1982, “Employment problems in the cities and regions of the UK: Prospects for the 1980s”Cambridge Economic Policy Review number 8.
11.
DETR, 1998Making the Difference: Report of the Coalfields Task ForceDepartment for Environment, Transport and the Regions, London.
12.
FieldhouseEHollywoodE, 1999, “Life after mining: Hidden unemployment and changing patterns of economic activity among miners in England and Wales 1981–91”Work, Employment and Society13483–502.
13.
GoreTSmithN, 2001Patterns of Educational Achievement in the British Coalfields RR 314, Department for Education and Skills, London.
14.
GoreTDabinettGBreezeJ, 1999Coalfields and the LotteryDepartment for Culture, Media and Sport, London.
15.
GreenA EOwenD, 1998Where are the Jobless?: Changing Unemployment and Non-employment in Cities and Regions (Policy Press, Bristol).
HollywoodE, 2002, “Mining, migration and immobility: Towards an understanding of the relationship between migration and occupation in the context of the UK mining industry”International Journal of Population Geography8297–314.
18.
MacKayR, 1999, “Work and nonwork: A more difficult labour market”Environment and Planning A31487–502.
19.
MooreBRhodesJTylerP, 1986The Effects of Government Regional Economic Policy Department of Trade and Industry (HMSO, London).
20.
MyrdalG, 1957Economic Theory and Underdeveloped Regions (Duckworth, London).
21.
RichardsonH W, 1978Regional and Urban Economics (Penguin, London).
22.
TurnerR, 2000Coal Was Our Life (Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield).
23.
TurokIEdgeN, 1999The Jobs Gap in Britain's Cities (Policy Press, Bristol).
24.
WaddingtonDCritcherCDicksBParryD, 2001Out of the Ashes?: The Social Impact of Industrial Contraction and Regeneration on Britain's Mining Communities (Jessica Kingsley, London).
25.
WebsterD, 2002, “Unemployment: How official statistics distort analysis and policy, and why”Radical Statistics79/8096–127.
