The unemployment rate for Liverpool was *** percent as of the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with the UK average of *** percent in the same time period.

The unemployment rate of Leicester was *** percent in the twelve months to March 2025, which was the highest among unitary authorities in England, including metropolitan counties and London. By contrast, Westmorland and Furness, in North West England, had the lowest unemployment rate, at ****percent.

London had the highest unemployment rate among regions of the United Kingdom in the third quarter of 2025 at *** percent, while for the UK as a whole, the unemployment rate was **** percent. Six other regions also had an unemployment rate higher than the national average, while Northern Ireland had the lowest unemployment rate in this time period, at *** percent. Labor market recovery after COVID-19 After reaching historically low levels of unemployment in 2019, there was a noticeable spike in the UK unemployment rate in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. After peaking at ****percent in late 2020, the unemployment rate declined throughout 2021 and 2022. High levels of job vacancies, resignations, and staff shortages in 2022, were all indicative of a very tight labor market that year, but all these measures have started to point in the direction of a slightly looser labor market. UK's regional economic divide While the North of England has some of the country’s largest cities, the sheer size and economic power of London is much larger than the UK's other urban agglomerations. Partly, due to the size of London, the United Kingdom is one of Europe’s most centralized counties, and there is a clear divide between the economic prospects of north and south England. In 2022, for example, the gross domestic product per head in London was ****** British pounds, far higher than the UK average of *******pounds, and significantly larger than North East England, the region with the lowest GDP per head at *******pounds.

As of the first quarter of 2025, the claimant count rate of the West Midlands Metropolitan County was 7.7 percent, which was the highest among unitary authorities, metropolitan counties, and in London.

This is a qualitative data collection. The Coventry and Liverpool Lives oral history project collected 58 oral history interviews with 21 men and women who have lived and worked in these cities since approximately 1945. The project aimed to explore how working-class men and women narrate their life histories and how social memory impacts on life stories told. By using the life history method of research change and continuity in the way people identify themselves across their life was captured. The interviews aimed to question the significance of 'affluence' amongst a group of working-class people in two economically diverse English cities after 1945. The interviews highlight the continued significance people place on class and gender to identify themselves even if at times definitions of the terms appear ambivalent. This collection contributes significantly to our understanding and knowledge of post-war everyday life. The interviews cover topics such as childhood, neighbourhood, home life, schooling, youth, leisure, first job, work history including periods of unemployment, National Service, marriage, motherhood, fatherhood and later life. Together they include people’s experiences prior to 1945, through the 1980s to the time of interviewing in 2008. Post-war migration to these cities from across the UK, Iran and the Punjab are represented. The collection fills a gap in sources of the period by focusing on Coventry and Liverpool, two cities that experienced severe bomb damage during the Second World War and subsequently significant social and economic change and redevelopment after1945. Peoples’ memories of the 1970s and 1980s when both cities experienced high unemployment and economic downturn due to the demise of industry and manufacturing are well detailed. Historians’ attention is shifting from the London centric image of the swinging sixties to consider more regional and local experiences of the post-war period. This collection will make a significant contribution to this new direction in British history.