Economy
The Ashton Arcades shopping centre opened in 1995. The centre covers 13,000 square metres (140,000 sq ft) on two floors with over 40 shops. In 2006, after failing twice to gain permission to develop a site in the neighbouring borough of Stockport, IKEA announced plans to build its first town centre-store in Ashton-under-Lyne. The store is expected to create 500 new jobs as well as attract other businesses to the area. The store opened on 19 October 2006 and covers 27,500 square metres (296,000 sq ft) At the time of its creation, the store was the tallest in Britain. Life science industries have been identified as growth industries in Greater Manchester and are concentrated in Oldham and Tameside. Average house prices in Tameside are the 7th highest out of the ten metropolitan boroughs in Greater Manchester, 11.9% below the average for the county.
| Tameside Compared | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 UK Census | Tameside | North West England | England |
| Population of working age | 152,313 | 4,839,669 | 35,532,091 |
| Full-time employment | 43.5% | 38.8% | 40.8% |
| Part-time employment | 11.5% | 11.9% | 11.8% |
| Self employed | 6.5% | 7.1% | 8.3% |
| Unemployed | 3.3% | 3.6% | 3.3% |
| Retired | 13.3% | 14.3% | 13.5% |
As of the 2001 UK census, Tameside had 152,313 residents aged 16 to 74. 2.0% of these people were students with jobs, 5.7% looking after home or family, 7.9% permanently sick or disabled and 3.2% economically inactive for other reasons.
In 2001, of 96,255 residents of Tameside in employment, the industry of employment was 21.7% manufacturing, 10.4% health and social work, 18.2% retail and wholesale, 10.2% property and business services, 7.2% construction, 6.8% transport and communications, 6.4% education, 5.3% public administration and defence, 4.2% finance, 4.0% hotels and restaurants, 0.9% energy and water supply, 0.5% agriculture, and 4.0% other. This was roughly in line with national figures, except for the proportion of jobs in agriculture which is less than half the national average, and property which was also below the national average. Manufacturing was 50% more than the national average.
Read more about this topic: Tameside
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development.”
—Alexander Herzen (1812–1870)
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“War. Fighting. Men ... every man in the whole realm is in the army.... Every man in uniform ... An economy entirely geared to war ... but there is not much war ... hardly any fighting ... yet every man a soldier from birth till death ... Men ... all men for fighting ... but no war, no wars to fight ... what is it, what does it mean?””
—Doris Lessing (b. 1919)