Dealing with Auto Industry Rundown and Closures: a perspective from Birmingham Challenges facing Mono-Sectoral Cities, Open Days 2010

4. Overview of workers

• 54% increased their commute time to work

• less anxiety

• better job quality
• more skill use
• more autonomy
• more challenge at work

• Longer Commute

5. Training and policy support

• Over 60% of respondents have had some form of training since closure
• This is a higher figure than that reported in previous studies. Related to the specific and job-relevant nature of training and education taken up?
• A majority of these retrained for ‘positive’ reasons…

5. Training and policy support

5. Training and policy support

• Wide ranging and speedy policy response – 86% made a benefit claim (82% registered within two weeks)
• Most used policy support: job fair, information on job opportunities, help from job centre plus, free place on a training course
• Most helpful support: free travel to a training course or job interview; a free place on a training course; being sent on a training course by a new employer; help with setting up a business.
• … yet most people who found a new job did so through their own initiative or through personal contacts 70%