This study assessed the empirical tenability of theoretical notions that were formulated to explain urban labour market changes in the latest phase of global capitalism, and it did so for the period 1995 to 2008. With the benefit of hindsight, it could be argued that this time span was very well chosen, as it represents the heyday of the type of capitalist production that this study aimed to scrutinize. This kind of production has been conceptualized, characterized, legitimized, and criticized in various ways, and this epilogue is not the place to discuss these interpretations and judgements at length. However, these explanations also have something in common, namely their emphasis on the central role played by finance and the concomitant advanced producer services such as accountancy, consultancies, law firms, and real estate. They also all consider the clustering of these advanced producer services in cities in the advanced economies as an integral, or even central, part of the type of capitalist production that fell into crisis after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. This clustering is the pivot upon which everything hinges in the theoretical notions in the global city debate that were scrutinized in this study. Accordingly, the aforementioned financial crisis and its aftermath – which will, for reasons of brevity, from now on be referred to as ‘the crisis’ – is highly relevant for the central findings of this research.

It was found in this study that Dutch cities diverged in their postindustrial development: the most service-oriented ones experienced stronger employment growth in the advanced producer services than the former industrial strongholds, and this proved to be highly relevant to their economic fortunes. In particular, it was demonstrated that the growth in those services was very beneficial for the labour market opportunities of less-skilled urbanites. Moreover, it was found that former industrial strongholds consequently have to cope with high unemployment rates among their less-educated inhabitants, while the most service-oriented cities do not. It should also be emphasized that this is not a Dutch idiosyncrasy. Indeed, the available evidence indicates that similar patterns can be found in other European countries (Pratschke & Morlicchio, 2012) and the United States (Florida, 2010; Glaeser, 2009).