The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has the second largest population of the nine English Combined Authorities at 2.86 million (ONS, 2022). It brings together ten local authorities: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Manchester, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, and Wigan.

It has an employment rate of 72.4% and its unemployment rate (5%) is higher than the English average (3.7%) [ONS, 2023]. Economic inactivity is higher in Greater Manchester (23.8%) than the rest of England (21.4%) [ONS, 2023]. Workers in the region earn a weekly wage of £601 which is just under £30 lower than the English average wage (Centre for Cities, 2023).

One in five workers (19.9%) in Greater Manchester are in severely insecure work, which is just above the national average of 19.8%. Greater Manchester Combined Authority has the sixth highest level of severely insecure work out of the nine English Combined Authorities.

Despite having lower incidences of severely insecure work, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority area has higher than average incidences of second jobs, low paid jobs, and temporary work.

Across the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, there is significant variation amongst the ten local authorities. Bolton is the hotspot in the city region for severely insecure work at 22.8%, which is over three percentage points higher than both the Greater Manchester and English averages. Oldham has the lowest levels of severely insecure work in Greater Manchester and is six percentage points below the national average.

Analysis shows that disabled workers, women from ethnic minority backgrounds, and younger workers are more likely than other workers to experience severely insecure work. Over half of workers aged 16-24 are in severely insecure work in Greater Manchester. You are less likely to be in severely insecure work as a disabled person if you live in Greater Manchester than the other Combined Authorities in England.

Source: Work Foundation calculations of the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey; 2021- 2022.

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