The harrying of the North: round 2 - The job cuts

[Bitter Ashes]

http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/14042009/140/recession-woe-job-losses-hurt-regions.html


Tuesday April 14, 02:16 PM
Recession Woe: Job Losses Hurt The Regions By Sky News

Job losses during the recession have impacted most on large cities outside the capital, with the Birmingham the worst affected.
Research showed the biggest jump in total numbers of people claiming unemployment benefit were found in the North, West Midlands and Scotland.
Areas linked with traditional manufacturing and heavy industry also saw a significant rise, a study by The Work Foundation found.
The number of people claiming Job Seeker's Allowance (JSA) in Birmingham rose more than tripled over the past year.
In February 45,657, 7.3% of the city's potential workforce, claimed JSA - compared to 12,383 the same time last year.
The number of unemployed people also rose significantly in Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield, Hull, Manchester, Bradford, Kirklees, Liverpool and Bristol.
However, the sharpest increases in unemployment - as a percentage - often came in council areas which never shared in the success of the economic boom.
The Wear Valley saw the biggest percentage increase, with unemployment more than doubling from 1,117 to 2,342.
Blaenau Gwent in Wales saw an increase in people claiming JSA of almost 70%, from 1,970 to 3,338.
And the number of jobless in Hull was up by more than 65% from 8,062 to 13,366.
Naomi Clayton, senior researcher at The Work Foundation, said the council areas "tell a story of a more traditional UK recession".
"Some areas which had yet to experience the economic prosperity enjoyed by others are once more showing how vulnerable they are to downturns," she said.
And Ms Clayton warned policy makers to "ignore how recessions play out locally at their peril" as well as advising the Government to adjust the forthcoming budget to reinvigorate Britain's largest cities.
:: The figures were taken from the Office of National Statistics for England, Scotland and Wales.


Is anyone suprised? Is this all part of that recent and infamous plot to commit the North to exodus and drive everyone down South? Probably not, but still, why is it once again that the North suffers so much again?

[Bitter Ashes]

So... nobody thinks that this is the persecution of the Northern British Isles again? Doubt anything will happen though. The memory of how the national media demonised the miners and the brutality they recieved for it is still fresh in the minds of many around here 25 years later.

[Bilan]

I don't think anyone finds it particularly surprising. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Northern part of England is where historically, and in a contemporary sense, manufacturing, etc. and generally, the working class, is concentrated. If that is true, then there's no surprises there. It will be, and always is, the working class who pays the real price of this crisis.

[MarxSchmarx]

I don't think anyone finds it particularly surprising. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Northern part of England is where historically, and in a contemporary sense, manufacturing, etc. and generally, the working class, is concentrated. If that is true, then there's no surprises there. It will be, and always is, the working class who pays the real price of this crisis.


Yeah I see no systematic SOCIAL discrimination here. There are plenty of analogies the world over in regions that are systematically and disporportionaley suffering. Indeed, in America and China, it is the power centers (California and the Coastal Cities in China) that are the main victims of the latest recession - not (yet) the rural hinterlands.

Moreover, I don't think you could argue this is anti-Scottish or anti-Northern English or something, esp. given it's sometimes Scottsmen and U of York graduates screwing the people from up there.