Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- 1 Geographical space: a new dimension of public concern and policy
- 2 Employment mobility in Britain
- 3 Leads and lags in inter-regional systems: a study of the cyclic fluctuations in the South West economy
- 4 Spatial structure of metropolitan England and Wales
- 5 Poverty and the urban system
- 6 Some economic and spatial characteristics of the British energy market
- 7 Growth, technical change and planning problems in heavy industry with special reference to the chemical industry
- 8 Freight transport costs, industrial location and regional development
- Index
5 - Poverty and the urban system
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables
- List of figures
- Preface
- 1 Geographical space: a new dimension of public concern and policy
- 2 Employment mobility in Britain
- 3 Leads and lags in inter-regional systems: a study of the cyclic fluctuations in the South West economy
- 4 Spatial structure of metropolitan England and Wales
- 5 Poverty and the urban system
- 6 Some economic and spatial characteristics of the British energy market
- 7 Growth, technical change and planning problems in heavy industry with special reference to the chemical industry
- 8 Freight transport costs, industrial location and regional development
- Index
Summary
The main purpose of this chapter is to explore one aspect of the relationships between certain long-term trends in the industrial and occupational structure of the population and the ecological structure of British cities. There are certain indications that the distinction between the skilled manual workers and the semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers is gaining a new significance in its urban spatial context. However, it is important to be clear at the outset that firm empirical evidence for the main outline of the argument is still lacking; a secondary objective of the chapter therefore is to argue for more research to be focussed upon this issue.
Changes in the industrial and occupational structure
It is initially worth adumbrating some of the well-established trends of changes in the country's occupational structure. Overall, it is evident that the total labourforce has been growing very slowly – at about 0.3 to 0.4 per cent per annum in England and Wales from 1931 to 1961. This rate of change masks more substantial changes at different levels, with more rapid rates of decline at the bottom of the occupational hierarchy and more rapid rates of increase at the top. The population as a whole is getting more skilled and the number of male semi-skilled and unskilled workers has declined absolutely in recent years (Knight, 1967). This decline in the proportion and number of less skilled workers is not taking place at the same pace between industries and occupational categories.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Spatial Policy Problems of the British Economy , pp. 126 - 145Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1971
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