Leading experts examine, for the first time, the impact of New Labour policies on the labour market over the past 5 years. Looking behind the 'good news' implied by the lowest headline unemployment rates since the 1970s and by a low and stable rate of inflation, it will examine the impact of policies such as the minimum wage, the New Deal, Working Family Tax Credit scheme, policies on lone parents, and changes in the education system. It also looks at the impact of growing income inequalities over this period, on the growing geographic concentrations of joblessness and on the new phenomenon...

Leading experts examine, for the first time, the impact of New Labour policies on the labour market over the past 5 years. Looking behind the 'good news' implied by the lowest headline unemployment rates since the 1970s and by a low and stable rate of inflation, it will examine the impact of policies such as the minimum wage, the New Deal, Working Family Tax Credit scheme, policies on lone parents, and changes in the education system. It also looks at the impact of growing income inequalities over this period, on the growing geographic concentrations of joblessness and on the new phenomenon...

The main issues examined in the book are what makes companies vulnerable to recessionary pressures; how companies typically respond to these pressures; how recessionary pressures have been transmitted back into labor markets and what kinds of institutional changes they have induced and, finally, whether recessionary pressures stimulate innovative activity. Having surveyed more than 600 of the U.K.'s leading companies, and made innovative use of microeconomic analysis, the authors are able to provide the most comprehensive answers yet, to this contentious area of economic debate.