This report outlines key findings from a survey of 300 firms in the West Midlands region, across the business professional and financial services; advanced manufacturing; retail; and hospitality sectors. The survey involved a 25-minute telephone interview, undertaken on behalf of the project team by IFF Research. The broad topics we covered in the survey were: (1) firmographics; (2) occupational structure; (3) productivity indicators; (4) skills – current structure, current constraints; (5) innovation; and (6) local embeddedness.The central aim of the overall project is to identify local factors that underlie and explain regional differences in productivity, with a particular focus on mismatches between the supply of and demand for specific skills. Additionally, it considers key trade-offs between productivity improvement and inclusive growth goals. The City-REDI team aims to do this by addressing the following research aims:Investigate how features of regional labour markets, especially skills, act as productivity constraints at the firm level, across different business functions and industry sectors.Examine the specific misalignments at the regional level between the supply of and demand for particular kinds of labour/ skillsExamine the motivations and outcomes of decisions about investment in skills and other factors and how these can stimulate improvements in productivity and – ideally – inclusive growth
