Recession and the Regions in Great Britain, 1976–1980: Analyses of Redundancy Data

Abstract

The severe downturn in the British economy in 1980 is apparent in regional data for employment (provisional), redundancies, and unemployment. Five shift-share analyses are used here to explore the data on employment and redundancies, three of them conducted at ‘minimum list heading’ level. The period 1976 to 1979 is one of poor performance by regions of traditional policy interest, whereas the events of 1980 are seen as essentially a national phenomenon. However, bias in the industrial composition of the recession towards manufacturing in general and towards certain individual products is sufficient to focus its very worst effects on Wales, the West Midlands, and the North West.