05Summary

The world of work is changing and so are the skills required to succeed in the labour market. Interpersonal and analytical skills are in greater demand than ever, and these trends are expected to continue in the future.

Yet both the demand for skills across the country and the availability of these skills are lower in cities outside the Greater South East.

Early years attainment in cities with the lowest levels of demand for analytical and interpersonal skills (which are all in the North and Midlands) is 4 percentage points below that of places with the highest demand (which are all in the Greater South East). The gap widens in schools, with cities with the lowest levels of demand falling 7 percentage points behind ones where demand is highest. Furthermore, the share of adults undertaking job-related training is smaller in cities with the lowest demand for analytical and interpersonal skills
(see Figure 12).