Examine the unemployment rate in Liverpool

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Examine the unemployment rate in Liverpool

SECTION 1 - The Historical Development of Liverpool up to the 198O's.

        SECTION 2 - Unemployment in Liverpool and the U.K. (1983 - 1993).

        SECTION 3 - Local, National and International Influences on Liverpool's Unemployment and Recent Policies.

        SECTION 4 - Conclusion.

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF LIVERPOOL UP TO THE 1980'S

         

The city of Liverpool is located on the River Mersey in Merseyside in the North-West of England. It represents a typical northern, post-industrial, capitalist society although it will appear evident that Liverpool has suffered severely, socially and economically. It is its situation and many local and non-local factors that have caused this range of diverse outcomes over the past couple of centuries.

        Until the C18, Liverpool had been a lonely town on account of the marshland that separated it from the rest of Lancashire. With the opening of the first Dock in 1715 came the Slave Trade which enhanced Liverpool's prosperity into becoming the second city and major port of the British Empire. Later that century when the Slave Trade was abolished, old established businesses, such as tobacco and sugar survived, and new developments and industries in the form of pottery manufacturing, watchmaking, glassmaking and breweries sprang up rapidly throughout the city. As the developments evolved, the port expanded and Liverpool grew in affluence. Many of the companies associated with the port erected buildings to reflect their importance and confidence, many of which still stand today.

        With these advancements, mass immigration to the city

occurred - people from Lancashire, Cheshire, Cumbria and the South-West, but mostly from Ireland. Between 1846 & 1847, 580,000 people fled to Liverpool in search of a better life, escaping the poverty of the Potato Famine. The population explosion ( 77,708 in 1800 and 684,947 in 1899 ) gave rise to a desolate situation of overcrowding, illustrated by the worst housing in the country; unemployment and low-wage employment; no fresh water or air, no sewage system, disease ( cholera, typhoid and T.B. ) and hence high mortality rates. In 1847, the average life expectancy was 20 years and 5 months.

        The economy prospered with trade trebling between 1830 & 1860 and again between 1860 & 1914. Employers took advantage of the over-supply of unskilled labour but workers were hired or laid-off according to demand and employed by the half day which caused uncertainty and unrest amongst them. Although Liverpool was second to London in wealth and produced more wealthy families in the C19 than any other English city, the prosperous entrepreneurs came to Liverpool to make their fortune and then moved out of the city without investing in it. This is still evident today as there are very few locally based large firms and industries.

        In the early C20, trade continued but was then hit by the collapse of the international economy and subsequent depression

between 1919 & 1939 - it has declined ever since. The Albert Dock ( opened in 1846 ) virtually ceased to be used for commercial activities by 1920 and this caused great unemployment. It has since been restored to house a mix of shops, businesses, residences, museums and galleries.

        In the early 1960's, the arrival of car production manufacturing became a growth sector, but then decentralisation of industries - suburban and ex-urban in location - meant an alteration in the geographical pattern of job supply. New technologies and multinational corporations (MNC's) meant fewer plants and Liverpool was excluded. There was more trade with the E.C. rather than the Commonwealth and it was apparent that Liverpool was on the wrong side of the country.

        The city of Liverpool has suffered a population loss since the 1960's, firstly due to residential requirements, ie. people were looking for more pleasant suburban areas to live in. Recently, the moves have been over longer distances due to lack of employment opportunities in inner areas. These migrants have been younger, skilled and professional workers which has had a dire effect on the city and its remaining inhabitants.

        It is evident that since the C18, although Liverpool grew in economic prosperity for the first time with the arrival of the

Slave Trade, it has suffered social destitution. Moreover, with the decentralisation of industries and population this century, it has reached a peak in social and economic deprivation and has attracted an array of aid programmes, ranging from regional assistance to industry to local community development projects and researchers. This has only really come about in the last two decades when Liverpool culminated in displaying a vast range of symptoms associated with inner-city malaise.

         

UNEMPLOYMENT IN LIVERPOOL AND THE U.K. 1983 TO 1993

OVERVIEW TO TABLES AND GRAPHS

        -- Data for table 1 and graphs 1 & 2 was selected from the monthly published Employment Gazette, over the 10 year period 1983 through to 1993. Two months were chosen to allow for seasonal variations within each year. June and December statistics are taken from the unemployment count two months before that issue hence the data used is from April and October 1983 through to 1993.

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-- Employment Gazette states that the unemployment rate is expressed as the number of persons aged 18 and over, claiming unemployment and related benefits as a percentage of the workforce; the workforce consisting of employees in employment, the self-employed, the unemployed,people in the H.M. forces and on work-related government training schemes.

-- The unemployment statistics do not wholly reflect the true unemployment situation as the process by which statistics are collected has altered nearly twenty times since the early 1980's. Almost all of these changes have reduced the numbers of those eligible to register and thus the true number of ...

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