ABSTRACT
The constitutional changes introduced by the present government have heightened interest in regional economic performance in Britain. By mapping the regional pattern of work skills towards the end of the 20th century, this chapter aims to make a timely contribution to the debate. It identifies regional inequalities in the skills possessed and used by workers, assesses the scale of the disparities and tracks how regions have fared over a five-year period in the late 1990s. The chapter’s original empirical contribution is based on a comparison of two surveys: one carried out in 1992 that elicited 3,855 responses, and one carried out in 1997 that produced 2,467 responses. The findings suggest that the North East and the East Midlands have fared poorly according to most of the measures examined. Both regions have seen skills demand fall rapidly at a time when other regions have seen the demand for skills rise significantly. The chapter ends by suggesting that more attention needs to be paid to the level of skills demand, and warns against undue concentration on skills supply and skills mismatches about which there are regular and frequent regional analyses.
