The UK labour market has become more challenging for all jobseekers, with unemployment particularly high among young people and those with limited education and skills. Research published today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation describes the difficulty of job searching for young people seeking low-skilled work, examining three contrasting local labour market areas in England and Wales.

The report was co-authored by Professor Becky Tunstall (University of York) and Professor Anne Green (IER), Ruth Lupton, Simon Watmough and Katie Bates (LSE).

The Nominet Trust has published a state of the art review undertaken by IER on Employment and the Internet. The report provides a baseline of data around employment and digital technology, mapping emerging employment patterns that may provide opportunities to rethink how we address current levels of unemployment and underemployment.

The report is available to download from the Nominet website.

In the fourth of a series of podcasts about our work at the Institute for Employment Research, Professor Anne Green speaks about her recent work on spatial inequalities in the UK and the importance of sub-national perspectives on employment and skills.

The final evaluation of the City Strategy initiative written by Professor Anne Green and Duncan Adam has been published. The initiative was designed at a time of national economic growth to combat enduring pockets of entrenched worklessness and poverty in urban areas by empowering local institutions to come together in partnerships to develop locally sensitive solutions. In general, City Strategy partnerships were successful in identifying gaps in existing service provision. They also had some successes in aligning funding sources so as to reduce duplication and achieve a more coherent services offer. There is a great deal of positive evidence for process changes made by the partnerships which have been positive for supporting workless individuals. There are numerous micro level individual and project success stories and outcomes all evidenced in this evaluation.

Green, A.E. and Adam, D. (2011). City Strategy: Final Evaluation, DWP Research Report No. 783. Department for Work and Pensions.