Changing contours of employment in England and Wales between 1921 and 2011: Industry, occupation, gender and locality

Abstract

The paper examines the contours of employment change in England and Wales between 1921 and 2011 using data from the respective Censuses of Population. The main focus of the analysis is on four related sets of phenomena: changing patterns of employment across industrial sectors, changes to patterns of gender and paid employment, changes to occupational segregation by gender and the changing contours of locality differences within England and Wales over the period. Various sociological debates about structural change are probed in detail. The paper concludes that whilst there have been a range of significant changes to these phenomena, there have also been some marked structural continuities.