The Importance of Health in Promoting Employability in the East Midlands

This paper analyses the relationship between health and employability in the context of the East Midlands, a high employment region with a history of manufacturing and coal mining, though both sectors’ importance has declined due to considerable industrial restructuring. It is argued that the health of the unemployed and economically inactive cannot be considered without an understanding of such contextual factors. Gender, age, the socio-economic context and other external factors are key to the complex relationship between health and employability. Within a broad framework of employability, health is not merely a personal characteristic. The paper argues for more qualitative research into employability and health to establish what factors influence the relationship.