Official counts of unemployment in the coalfields have not reflected the large-scale losses of thousands of jobs from the mining industry in the 1980s and 1990s. Recent studies have suggested that there are indeed high incidences of unemployment among ex-miners and that much of the unemployment in the coalfields is `hidden', masked by the removal of miners from the official unemployment register through early retirement or being classed permanently sick. This paper examines how miners have been absorbed into the labour market over a ten-year period, between 1981 and 1991. Using data from the ONS Longitudinal Study a sample of miners are identified in 1981 and their labour market position in 1991 examined. The data are used to highlight changes in occupation, employment status and social class. In addition, regional differences in unemployment and joblessness are assessed.

This paper aims to discover how, with the decline and ending of the deep coal mining industry in many parts of the UK its legacy is being re-evaluated by those involved in various aspects of economic and social regeneration. It opens by exploring the way coal mine workers and their communities have been seen within popular and academic accounts, and in particular the way this group has been subject to ideal typification and stereo-typing. The main body of the paper examines the way this legacy is still subject to such interpretation, and that further, the specificity of the coal industry is commodified in a variety of ways. We point out the contradictory nature of this process and argue that it is inevitably damaging to a complex analysis of the deep problems facing former coalfield areas.

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The large-scale decline of the UK mining industry in recent years has led to signi®cant job losses, unemployment and inactivity throughout the coal®elds. This paper aims to examine the role of migration as a response to these closures during the last 30 years. In neoclassical economic theory, migration is traditionally seen as an equilibrating force in areas of labour-market imbalance. However, this paper argues that migration is more closely associated with occupation than with imbalances in the demand and supply of labour, with professional workers displaying far higher rates of migration than manual workers. While migration is often seen as an integral part of many professional careers, by contrast it has little to do with the nature of manual occupations. Consequently, it is argued that the labour-market problems faced by manual workers, such as miners, are unlikely to be alleviated by labour migration. In order to illustrate these arguments, the paper uses data from the Sample of Anonymised Records and the ONS Longitudinal Study. The migration rates of miners are compared with other occupational groups; migration rates over time are considered; and transitions in employment are examined.