Spatial Mobility, Workers and Jobs: Perspectives from the Northern Ireland Experience

Ian Shuttleworth (1) , Anne Green (2)

1 QUB
2 Institute for Employment Research

How best to address local concentrations of worklessness is a key question for labour market, economic development and social inclusion policy. Historically, initiatives in Northern Ireland have focused on moving ‘jobs to workers', but in changed political circumstances there is now greater emphasis on encouraging the movement of ‘workers to jobs'. A review of the Northern Ireland experience in the context of broader consideration of the geography and socio-institutional structure of local labour markets sheds light on the difficulties and successes in implementing both approaches. It is concluded that both have a role to play because labour market space is simultaneously ‘segmented' and ‘seamless'.

Mots clés: Social Sciences & Humanities

Ian Shuttleworth, Anne Green. Spatial Mobility, Workers and Jobs: Perspectives from the Northern Ireland Experience. Regional Studies, 2009, 43 (08), pp.1105-1115. ⟨10.1080/00343400801968411⟩. ⟨hal-00516206⟩