LABOR-MARKETS AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN RURAL BRITAIN

Concern over the consequences of agricultural adjustment has been the focus of rural development policy for many years, yet conventional statistical indicators show little evidence of a problem. This paper, which is restricted to the United Kingdom experience, argues that the operation of the labour market in rural areas is different from that in urban areas, and that this is implicit in the literature although there is little empirical basis for such an assumption. The paper examines the published evidence from the United Kingdom in terms of definitional and statistical problems, constraints on labour market participation associated with rurality, and the effects of the changing nature of rural economies on employment opportunities. It concludes that there has been little if any comprehensive analysis of the operation of the labour market in different types of rural area, and this acts as a barrier to the development of revised approaches to rural development which respond to the changed circumstances.