Red, Amber or Green alert, how do you rate yours?

[TheAnimus]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7850055.stm

UK cities outside the south-east England are likely to be hit hardest by recession, a new report warns.
The Centre for Cities charity put on "red" alert Belfast, Liverpool and Hull, owing to high numbers of unemployed and unqualified residents.
Least vulnerable - on "green" - were places including Oxford, Cambridge and Reading, with what the report called their "highly qualified workforces".
But the charity warned that "in 2009 all cities will feel recession bite".
Cities like Bristol, London and Edinburgh were placed on a medium "amber" alert as "they specialise in vulnerable financial services".
"But these cities have highly skilled residents - which means a more flexible and mobile workforce," the report added.

Here is the full report:
http://www.centreforcities.org/asset...0Recession.pdf

So how do you rate yours?

Personally i think they've under rated london, it should be red, its reliance on the financial services sector is hudge for so much of its tertiary services, when people cut back on such spending it can rapidly snowball out of control.

[Virtual Monkey]

I'd like to know what they consider 'highly qualified'.

[Steve]

Amber's probably right for Bristol.

Glad I'm in the high-tech side of things - although it's a small comfort.

[Salazaar]

Least vulnerable - on "green" - were places including Oxford

Hmmmm
<------

[GheeTsar]

I live in Reading and while I do note that there are a lot of high tech industries and firms in the area these are not immune - eg: Microsoft, which is recently shedding 1,400 jobs (albeit globally) if my mind serves me.

[Biscuit]

being in broadcast is good too

People get laid off from work.... and they watch TV

[ACiD303]

Hmmm....amber's sketchy for Edinburgh, I'd say. It has too much a reliance of the financial sector, and I wouldn't say much of the remaining workforce is highly qualified, skilled, or otherwise. Not to say it's full of people unable to do anything, there are plenty of bright people around, but financial services and retail are the biggest employers in Edinburgh - and it is those services that are under threat the most.

[Blitzen]

We are Green (thank feck).

We have a MAHOOSIVE global share in our business. This coupled with the fact that the business is practically recession proof is a great thing for us.

[alsenior]

I Would Say grimsby would be a read area. Alot of businesses have already started shedding jobs along with the weak education in the area means that unemployment is going to sky rocket here

[Funkstar]

Aberdeen is probably Amber due to the drasticly reduced oil price.

However, there are three major construction projects on going in the city center due to be complete late this year or early next, and several other large projects on the horizon. So I don't think unemplyment is too bad, other than in retail of course.

We also have a lot of non-oil related developments on the cards. The council offices are moving from a horrible milti-story office block built in the 1970s across the road into the second largest granite building in the world. There is also the Trump International golf resort, which has encouraged other developments in the area.

Hopefully once all this is in palce over the next few years, we will be less reliant on the oil/energy industry. At least until they build a huge wind farm just off the coast