ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the spatial distribution of employment growth has changed in this unstable period of transition, and which types of area have struggled to capture significant employment growth. It also examines how these processes have been closely related to cumulative dynamics in population change and skill patterns, which have entrenched the disadvantages of types of falling behind place. The fall in manufacturing employment has been felt most strongly in traditionally industrial regions such as the North East, North West and West Midlands, but also in London; in these areas total production employment has fallen by more than half. The growth of Knowledge-Intensive Business Services (KIBS) has been a powerful force for divergence that again combines both regional and local dynamics, operating in conjunction. London, of course, already had a marked specialization in these services at the start of the period.
