Elsevier

Geoforum

Volume 20, Issue 1, 1989, Pages 107-126
Geoforum

Spatial aspects of labour mobility in the 1980s

https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7185(89)90021-3Get rights and content

Abstract

The recent recovery of the British economy has been associated with greater flexibility in labour markets, with a breakdown in wage rigidities, curbs on trade union power and a reduction in employee protection. However, it is often claimed that further manpower flexibility is hampered by the geographical immobility of labour. This paper considers this claim in reviewing the spatial aspects of labour mobility in the 1980s. After reviewing the theoretical analyses of labour migration, it presents empirical evidence on the extent of migration in the 1980s. Attention is then forwarded on housing as one of the main barriers to labour mobility.

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    ∗ Paper presented to the EMRU Labour Economics Study Group Workshop, University of Swansea, 28–30 March 1988.

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