Looking through the hourglass: hollowing out of the UK jobs market pre- and post-crisis

A large and growing body of research details the ‘hollowing out’ of developed labour markets (the relative decline of mid-skilled jobs and expansion of low- and high-skilled jobs) from the 1970s to the 2008-09 recession. Previous Resolution Foundation research (Plunkett & Pessoa, 2013) confirmed that these trends continued in the UK in the early years of the crisis. This analysis updates the picture to 2014, and places UK trends in the context of broader debates on polarisation.