ABSTRACT
The discussion of employment and unemployment in cities, however, will concentrate on the postwar period, and in particular on the last 25 years. This chapter has two principal aims. First to describe the changing inter- and intra-urban patterns of employment and unemployment, and second to begin to erect a possible explanation for these changes. Population movements, including planned migration to New and Expanded towns, have tended to go hand-in-hand with the spatial redistribution of employment opportunities. The creation of many new jobs for women in both manufacturing and services has brought many people into employment who previously may not have been on the unemployment register. The principal recent spatial change in employment opportunities in most cities in western societies has been one of decentralisation, or suburbanisation. The chapter also discusses some policy issues. The operation of regional policy may in part help to account for some of the differences in employment component rates between conurbations in the UK.
