Unemployment duration in the recession: The local labour market area scale

Abstract

Green A. E. (1985) Unemployment duration in the recession: the local labour market area scale, Reg. Studies 19, 111–129. This paper examines spatial variations in the duration of uncompleted unemployment spells using median, lower and upper quartile duration measures within a local labour market area (LLMA) framework. Regional, hierarchical and functional differentials in unemployment duration during the recession are investigated using a nineteen-fold LLMA classification. It is discovered that pre-existing spatial differentials in unemployment duration experience were largely maintained; with longer durations recorded in the North than in the South, around Provincial Conurbations than in the London Metropolitan Region, at higher than at lower levels of the urban hierarchy, and in LLMAs with a manufacturing employment base than in those with a service or commercially oriented employment structure.