The Recession

Policy and employer responses

This paper examines the impact of recession on the labour market through three lenses:

• Firstly, it presents a summary of the key evidence to date on redundancies and employment decline in the UK, with international comparisons, identifying which labour market groups and geographical areas have been most affected.
• Secondly, it reviews and assesses the government policy response, focused on initiatives to support employment.
• Thirdly, it reviews employer responses to recession (action which affects current employees, and their plans for the future), and questions the level of employer engagement with government policy.