By Lucy Phillips
15 February 2011
Public sector spending cuts could lead to an exodus of
graduates from regions outside the Southeast, impeding economic recovery,
according to the Work Foundation.
In a report published today, the think-tank says that
because graduates in the North and Midlands are disproportionately employed in
the public sector, spending cuts are likely to result in a ‘flight’ of
university leavers away from these areas to places with stronger private
sectors in the Southeast.
Some 20% of new graduates are already unemployed and the
situation is expected to get worse as cuts bite into the public sector, which takes
on proportionately more graduates than the private sector.
The report, Cutting
the apron strings? The clustering of young graduates and the role of the public
sector, warns that patterns of improved graduate retention in cities and
regions outside the Southeast risk being reversed altogether. The resulting
‘brain drain’ would impede economic recovery, it says.
Leeds, Sheffield and Rotherham have experienced particularly
large increases in graduates over the past decade.
Jonathan Wright, research assistant at the Work Foundation
and author of the report, urged the government to ‘demonstrate its commitment
to rebalance the economy’.
He said: ‘High-skilled graduates are vital for urban
innovation and growth. With the scrapping of schemes such as the Future Jobs
Fund, the coalition must now focus on developing strategies aimed at
integrating the highly skilled into local private sector jobs.
‘Not doing so risks exacerbating regional divides between
successful cities and regions (mainly located in the Southeast) and those in
the North and Midlands.’
