New Forms of Work and Employment in an `Old Industrial Region'? The Offshore Construction Industry in the North East of England

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of the new forms of work and employment brought to the North East of England by the development of offshore construction activities, serving the North Sea's oil and gas industries in the period since the early 1970s. In particular, it assesses the extent to which these activities differ from traditional forms of work and employment organisation within the region. The results of this analysis suggest the need to interpret contemporary patterns of restructuring, both in a particular local labour market context and more generally, as part of an on-going evolutionary process, rather than as a decisive break (or shift) from the past.