Donald Houston

Employability, Skills Mismatch and Spatial Mismatch in Metropolitan Labour Markets:

The skills mismatch and spatial mismatch perspectives are often presented as competing explanations of the spatial distribution of unemployment within metropolitan areas. This paper argues that the spatial mismatch hypothesis addresses some of the shortcomings of the skills mismatch perspective, while not denying the importance of skills mismatch. The development of the spatial mismatch hypothesis in the US is traced, before considering its relevance in the British context. A framework in which to conceptualise and reconcile skills mismatch and spatial mismatch within metropolitan areas is developed, incorporating the operation of local housing and labour markets as well as the role of commuting. The paper concludes by arguing that skills and spatial mismatches reinforce each other and that the concept of employability offers some potential to help understand how job searchers and employers make decisions in situations of skills and/or spatial mismatch. The implications for future research are highlighted.

Will attracting the 'creative class' boost economic growth in old industrial regions: a case study of Scotland?

Abstract. Attracting in‐migration of the creative class has been argued by Florida (2002) to be a route to higher economic growth in the era of the knowledge economy. This paper critically evaluates this proposition in relation to old industrial regions using the example of Scotland. The paper presents an assessment of, in the first instance, to what extent there is a shortage of skilled, talented and entrepreneurial individuals and, in the second instance, whether a talent attraction strategy alone can hope to attract such people to Scotland. It is proposed that for most migrants the availability of appropriate economic opportunities is a prerequisite for mobility. However, despite uncertain evidence that place attractiveness is a catalyst to mobility among the so‐called creative class, this is not a reason for dismissing talent attraction programmes. Instead it is argued that talent attraction programmes have the potential to contribute to old industrial economies, but their success will be greatest when talent attraction is carefully targeted and based on economic realities rather than the marketing of ethereal conceptions of place attractiveness.

Methods to Test the Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis

Abstract The spatial mismatch hypothesis postulates that employment deconcentration within U.S. metropolitan areas goes some way toward explaining higher unemployment and lower wages among ethnic minority groups, since these groups are more likely to reside in central-city areas. However, little consensus has emerged on the importance of spatial mismatch in explaining disadvantage in the labor market. This article argues that conflicting evidence is the result of the variety of methods that have been used to test the spatial mismatch hypothesis. Moreover, it draws attention to a number of hitherto uncovered flaws in some of these methods that introduce systematic biases against finding evidence in support of the hypothesis. In light of these flaws, favored methods for future research are highlighted. Drawing on evidence from British conurbations that display similar spatial inequalities to U.S. metropolitan areas despite much smaller ethnic minority populations, the article contends that race does not lie at the heart of the spatial mismatch problem. Three areas in which the spatial mismatch hypothesis should be reconceptualized are identified: first, its emphasis should be on spatial, not racial, inequalities; second, it needs to differentiate between residential immobility and residential segregation, which are quite different; and third, it needs to recognize that the extent and the effect of spatial mismatch are distinct and should be measured separately.

A Gendered Theory of Employment, Unemployment and Sickness

The high level of receipt of disability benefits in the UK was until the 1990s a problem predominantly affecting men. However, the number of women claiming—1.1 million—is now on a similar scale. The decline of heavy industry produced large numbers of men with ill health and limited alternative employment prospects who claimed disability benefits. However, this explanation is problematic for women, who have seen an expansion in employment. We set out a framework that reconciles the central importance of the level of labour demand in explaining worklessness with the paradoxical simultaneous rise of womens employment and receipt of disability benefits. Women claiming disability benefits are overwhelmingly located alongside male claimants in areas where heavy industry has declined, pointing towards linkages between the ‘male’ and ‘female’ sides of the labour market. Additionally, there may be raised knowledge and local acceptance of disability benefits in these locations.

Fit for purpose? Welfare reform and challenges for health and labour market policy in the UK

In the UK, as in some other EU states, the focus of recent welfare reforms has switched from those on unemployment benefits to those receiving sickness/incapacity benefits (IBs), reflecting concerns around the large numbers falling into the this last group. The Labour government elected in 1997 introduced a range of measures to activate those on IBs, setting a target of a one million reduction in the number of claimants by the end of 2015. The Conservative Party similarly came to acknowledge that high levels of IB claiming represented a problem of ‘unemployment hidden as sickness’, and in coalition now proposes even more aggressive supply-side strategies. This paper provides an extensive review of the most recent evidence to identify factors driving the rise in the number of people claiming IBs and, in light of this analysis, assesses whether current policy is fit for purpose. An important conclusion is that any national ‘one-size fits all’ supply-side policy response is blind to the distinctive geography of receipt of IBs and the complex combination of factors that leave some people trapped on these benefits.

Escalators, Elevators and Travelators: The Occupational Mobility of Migrants to South-East England

In a meritocratic society it is assumed that the chance of achieving occupational mobility (OM) is not strongly influenced by ones starting position in terms of class or ethnicity. This paper seeks to explain the drivers of the high levels of OM achieved by one ethnically defined group: the Scots. Educational attainment is shown to be particularly important. A second level of interest is the changing role of internal migrants to a global city in the face of increased international skilled immigration. We investigate whether there is any evidence that the OM of internal migrants is being hindered as a result. The evidence points instead to immobile local labour being more disadvantaged occupationally than mobile labour from peripheral regions of the state.

Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda

This article introduces a special issue of Policy Studies entitled “Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda”. Growing from a shared concern over the need to expand the evidence base around the processes that led to large numbers of people claiming disability benefits in the UK, it brings together contributions from leading labour market and social policy researchers providing evidence and commentary on major reforms to Incapacity Benefit (IB) in the UK. This special issue address three key questions: what are the main causes of the long-term rise in the number of people claiming IBs; what will reduce the number of claimants; and what is likely to deliver policy effectively and efficiently? This introduction first explains and examines the challenges to reforms to IB in the UK, and then, in conclusion, highlights the answers to the previous three questions – first, labour market restructuring and marginalisation have driven the rise in numbers claiming IBs. Second, economic regeneration in the Britain’s less prosperous areas coupled with intensive and sustained supply-side support measures will bring numbers down. Third, delivery need to be flexible and tailored to individual needs and needs to be able to access local and expert knowledge in a range of organisations, including Job Centre Plus, the NHS as well as the private and voluntary sectors.

Getting off the Escalator? A Study of Scots Out-Migration from a Global City Region

Something new is happening to reverse the historical trend of skilled Scots moving to London for career progression. The Scottish population of London and the South East is falling and this despite Scots enjoying continued occupational success within the South East labour market. The authors ask why Scots are leaving the UKs main escalator region and then investigate how these migration changes can best be theorised relative to literature on the mobility of the ‘new service class‘. Building on Fieldings escalator region hypothesis, the authors report on recent research on longer distance flows out of the UKs main escalator region. They advance the critique of the escalator region hypothesis set out by Findlay et al and ask why people would leave a global city offering good opportunities for occupational mobility. Demographic regime change provides only a partial answer. Other explanations can be found in the changing mobilities of the new service class as they engage in what Smith has defined as ‘translocal’ and ‘transnational’ urbanism. The authors argue that Scotlands changing relationship with London and the South East may be representative of a wider set of changes in migration linkages between regional economies and global cities.

Bringing Incapacity Benefit numbers down: to what extent do women need a different approach?

The dominant narrative used to explain the big rise in Incapacity Benefit (IB) numbers across Britain is essentially about men. The collapse of male employment in older industries, mostly in the North, Scotland and Wales, led to the emergence of a cohort of mainly older, less healthy men who accessed IB instead of unemployment benefits. What this overlooks is that among the under-60s the number of women claiming IB now almost equals the number of men. In view of the long-term increase in employment opportunities for women, the similarity in IB numbers is at first sight surprising. Does this mean that bringing down the number of women on IB requires a different approach? The article draws on evidence from a survey of men and women claiming IB, in-depth interviews with claimants and professional stakeholders and secondary data analysis. The identical geography of male and female IB claimants suggests that a weak aggregate demand for labour is through time transmitted, via labour market sorting processes, to exclude from employment the most disadvantaged in terms of skills and health, irrespective of gender. The article highlights important similarities between the men and women claiming IB but also a number of distinctive issues affecting women, including the roles of increased labour market participation, lone parenthood and the impact of benefit rules. It is concluded that a package of economic regeneration and supply-side interventions will bring down the number of both men and women claiming IB.

Low Carbon Housing: A ‘Green’ Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?

Ambitious carbon reduction targets are driving a new era of carbon control reflecting the UK, the EU and international commitment to mitigating the predicted impacts of global warming and climate change. Observed as a transition away from the more holistic goals of sustainable development (While et al., 2001), the ‘low carbon’ (LC) agenda is increasingly recognised as problematic in so far as it is pro-technological and promethean, marginalising the importance of social, political, economic and wider environmental issues. With specific implications for housing and householders, the paper explores how the current preoccupation with ‘LC’ presents some potential pitfalls in relation to advancing sustainable housing.