Regional economic indicators November 2008 with a focus on skills.

This quarter, the Regional economic indicators (REI) article focuses on skills -- one of the drivers of regional productivity. The regular part of the article then gives an overview of the economic activity of UK regions in terms of their GVA, their GVA per head and their labour productivity. This is followed by a presentation of headline indicators of regional welfare, other drivers of regional productivity and regional labour market statistics. The indicators cover the nine Government Office Regions of England and the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These 12 areas comprise level 1 of the European Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS level 1) for the UK. The term 'region' is used to describe this level of geography for convenience in the rest of this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]