Studies of the UK labour market with special reference to the construction sector

This portfolio of work examines various aspects of the UK labour market and it specialises on the construction sector. It draws on research studies that have been published over a thirty year period. From this wide portfolio of material, some six studies have been selected for a critical analysis. These papers are held to be representative of my research in this subject area. Section 2 of the critical overview provides a short background to the full body of research and places the publications that appear in the References in chronological context. This section also draws attention to the influence of external labour market organisations in providing direction for the various research studies. Section '3 discusses the two papers that are fully reproduced in Annex A. These studies were'concerned with modelling labour supply and demand for the overall UK economy. Both papers use applied econometrics to model trends in key employment variables. Section 4 analyses the research monograph that is reproduced in Annex B. This study attempted to produce an employment forecasting model for the UK construction sector. This work involved extensive data collation, not only the compilation of time series observations but also the assembly of qualitative information from labour market practitioners in the industry. Modelling was carried out at several levels of disaggregation. Section 5 presents three more recent papers that are reproduced in Annex C. These studies demonstrate different research approaches to the econometric analyses that lie at the heart of the earlier work. The emphasis on these later papers is towards survey research and critical appraisal. Use is made of interview questionnaire data in one of these studies, whilst another relies on detailed analysis of official published statistics. All relate to the UK construction labour market. The brief conclusions testify to the wide range of analytical skills that has been applied in the assembled papers. It is maintained that collectively this body of work has made a significant contribution to an understanding of the UK labour market and especially to knowledge of employment in the construction sector.