Traffic Light City

A newly published report by the Centre for Cities charity has ranked the major cities in the UK, based on a traffic light system, as to how hard they will be hit by the current recession.

Those cities put on ‘red’ alert (likely to be hardest hit) are Belfast, Liverpool and Hull due to the high numbers of unemployed and unqualified workers.

Least vulnerable (on ‘green’) include Oxford, Cambridge and Reading. These towns are more protected beacuse of their ‘highlyqualified workforce’. Green cities are mostly in the South East.

Cities such as Bristol, London and Edinburgh have been placed on ‘amber’ alert as ‘they specialise in vulnerable financial services’.

According to the report Cambridge saw the lowest increase in Job Seekers Allowance in 2008. Hull saw the highest increase.

On the upside when the storm settles the report believes these same cities will lead the recovery.

For the full report click here. The BBC has also produced a three minute video looking at the varying effects of the recession across the country, good for discussing regional negative multiplier effects.