Polarised upgrading: the changing occupational structure of large cities in Germany and the UK, 1991–2021
Daniel Oesch, Katy Morris, Gina-Julia Westenberger · 2025
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Description
Daniel Oesch, Katy Morris, and Gina-Julia Westenberger revisit in 2025 a famous claim about how city jobs would split into rich and poor. The 1990s thesis held that big cities would grow jobs at the top and the bottom while the middle hollowed out. The team tested that claim on the ten largest cities of Germany and the UK from 1991 to 2021.
Using census data and German social security records, they found strong growth at the top in every city, among professionals and managers. Growth at the bottom, in service and sales jobs, was moderate. The middle, office clerks and production workers, shrank sharply. The result is upgrading with a polarized twist, strongest in London but clear in Birmingham too. City labor markets lifted more than they split.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Daniel Oesch, Katy Morris, Gina-Julia Westenberger |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 44 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |