{"id":13396,"date":"2021-07-22T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-22T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/?post_type=question&p=13396"},"modified":"2021-09-08T16:32:36","modified_gmt":"2021-09-08T15:32:36","slug":"levelling-up-has-covid-19-reduced-the-regional-employment-gap","status":"publish","type":"question","link":"https:\/\/www.economicsobservatory.com\/test\/levelling-up-has-covid-19-reduced-the-regional-employment-gap","title":{"rendered":"Levelling up: Has Covid-19 reduced the regional employment gap?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The latest labour market data<\/a> for the UK were released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last week. The ONS headline focused on \u2018payroll employment\u2019, measured by the number of employees registered for pay as you earn (PAYE) tax each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does the evidence say?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

According to the data, the number of employees in the North East, North West, East Midlands and Northern Ireland has risen above pre-pandemic levels (see Figure 1). This coincides with the re-opening of shops and restaurants \u2013 areas of the economy hit hard by lockdown measures. But employment in London is still 3.2% below pre-pandemic levels (see Figure 1). With the exception of the East Midlands, the regions seeing employment recovery have long been a subject of policy discussion. Their employment rates are 2-5 percentage points lower than the employment rate in London<\/a>. But the new data suggest the employment gap might be closing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 1: Payrolled employees, percentage change since February 2020, June 2021<\/h4>\n\n\n
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