The impact of COVID on the workforce and regional economic output

The impact on the Workforce and Local Economic Output will be felt more acutely in the North and West of England

The International Labour Organisation examined the impact of the crisis on economic output by different sectors. This gave the level of current impact of the COVID-19 crisis on economic output against each categorised sector (based on International Standard Industrial Classification of All Economic Activities) into High, Medium-high, Medium, Low-medium and Low impact.

This identified that over 30% of the UK workforce worked in sectors experiencing high impact due to COVID-19, and nearly 70% was experiencing medium or greater impact.

Regions across England are dependent on different sectors for their economic output. This same economic impact as identified by the ILO can be used to map the proportion of each region’s economic output that is experiencing high impact due to COVID-19. Here the regional variance is significant, and shows that between 34% and 58% of each regions local economic output is experiencing high impact, a variance of 1.7x.

Our analysis shows that the economy in the North and West of England may be at more risk of impact from COVID-19. London and some of the Home Counties may be less affected. These regions are more reliant on manufacturing, wholesale and retail businesses most directly impacted.