Swansea initially grew as a centre of the metallurgical industry in the 18th century. The Lower Swansea valley was a favourable for industrial development because of its port, easy access to coal deposits, and a supply of cheap labour. While lead and zinc were also smelted in west Glamorgan, Swansea’s signature industry was copper. Initially copper ore was imported from Cornwall, Cardiganshire and Ireland, but by the 1820s Swansea was receiving shipments from as far afield as South America, Africa and Australia. The copper industry reached a zenith in the 1880s, when the majority of copper ores imported to Britain were shipped to Swansea and local works employed around 3000 men at any given time. For other places with the same name, see Swansea (disambiguation). ... Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and of materials engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements and their mixtures, which are called alloys. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ... The Lower Swansea valley is a term widely used to describe the lower half of the valley of the River Tawe from approximately the level of Clydach down to Swansea Docks. ... Seaport, a painting by Claude Lorrain, 1638 The Port of Wellington at night. ... Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by coal mining, either underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... Labour (Commonwealth English) or labor (American English) may refer to one of the following. ... For PB or pb as an abbreviation, see PB. General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish gray Atomic mass 207. ... General Name, Symbol, Number zinc, Zn, 30 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 12, 4, d Appearance bluish pale gray Atomic mass 65. ... Glamorgan or Glamorganshire (Welsh: ) is one of thirteen historic counties and former administrative counties of Wales. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ... Copper ores may refer to: Bornite Cuprite Tennantite Tetrahedrite Category: ... Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow) is a county in South West England, United Kingdom, on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar. ... Cardiganshire (Sir Aberteifi in Welsh) was a traditional county in Wales that existed between 1282 and 1974. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ... A world map showing the continent of Africa. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Atomic mass 63. ...

From the 1870s, tinplate also became a major local industry, pioneered by the Siemens works at Landore. Tinplate production stimulated the further expansion of Swansea port with the opening of the Prince of Wales dock, to be used mainly for tinplate export, in 1882. The location of new tinplate works confirmed the steel industry’s increasing preference for coastal sites near ports. However, the Welsh tinplate industry was dependent on exporting to the American market, and suffered serious implications from the imposition of the McKinley tariff in 1890. Plating is the general name of surface-covering techniques in which a metal is coated onto a solid surface. ... Siemens has the following uses: Siemens is a German family name carried by generations of the telecommunications industrialists, including Werner von Siemens, Sir William Siemens, Wilhelm von Siemens and Peter von Siemens Siemens AG is a German electrical and telecommunications company, founded as a telegraph equipment manufacturer by Werner von... The electoral ward of Landore, City and County of Swansea, South Wales, consists of some or all of the following areas, Bon-y-maen, Cwm, Landore, Pentre-chwyth, Swansea, Cadle, Cockett, Felindre, Fforest-fach, Llangyfelach, Tirdeunaw, Waunarlwydd, Clydach, Craigcefnparc, Morriston, Pant-lasau, Plasmarl, Vardre, Ynystawe. ... Dock can refer to several things: Places for the transfer of people and materials to, from, or between different forms of transport or working with transport: A maritime dock. ... The McKinley Tariff of 1890 was what set the average ad valorem tariff rate for imports to the United States at 48. ...

By the end of the Second World War these heavy industries were in decline, and over the post-war decades Swansea shared in the general trend towards a post-industrial, service sector economy. Today, the most important economic sectors in Swansea are: public administration, education and health (37.4% of local jobs); distribution, hotels and restaurants (25.5%); and banking, finance and insurance (16.3%). The high proportion of public sector employment is common to Wales as a whole (32.8%) and much higher than the UK average (26.4%). This primarily reflects the relative weakness of the private sector in Swansea (and Wales) rather than an "overly" large public sector. Much large scale private sector economic activity in the city consists of either manufacturing, call centres, other back office functions or outsourcing, evidence of a 'branch factory' economy where production and service delivery functions are located in a low cost region while head office functions are retained elsewhere - in the UK, usually London. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... A post-industrial society is a proposed name for an economy that has undergone a specific series of changes in structure after a process of industrialization. ... The tertiary sector of industry, also called the service sector or the service industry, is one of the three main industrial categories of a developed economy, the others being the secondary industry (manufacturing and primary goods production such as agriculture), and primary industry (extraction such as mining and fishing). ... < [[[[math>Insert formula here</math>The public sector is that part of economic and administrative life that deals with the delivery of goods and services by and for the [[government </math></math></math></math> Direct administration funded through taxation; the delivering organisation generally has no specific requirement to meet commercial... Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... The private sector of a nations economy consists of all that is outside the state. ... Manufacturing, a branch of industry which accounts for about one-quarter of the worlds economic activity, is the application of tools and a processing medium to the transformation of raw materials into finished goods for sale. ... A call centre (Commonwealth English) or call center (AmE) is a centralised office of a company that answers incoming telephone calls from customers or that makes outgoing telephone calls to customers (telemarketing). ... A back office is a part of most corporations where tasks dedicated to running the company itself take place. ... Outsourcing entered the business lexicon in the 1980s and often refers to the delegation of non-core operations from internal production to an external entity specialising in the management of that operation. ... In economics, business, and accounting, a cost is the value of inputs that have been used up to produce something, and hence are not available for use anymore. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Major employers in Swansea include manufacturing facilities operated by 3M UK plc, Alcoa, Alberto Culver, Bemis, International Rectifier, Morganite Electrical Carbon, and Pure Wafer (Visteon also has a 'Swansea Plant', but it is actually just outside the local authority boundary in Neath Port Talbot). Major service sector employers based locally include Admiral Insurance, Electronic Data Systems (EDS), HSBC, NTL, BT Group, 118 118 (UK), Tesco and South West Wales Publications. Large public sector employers include the City and County of Swansea, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, HM Land Registry, Welsh Assembly Government, Department of Work and Pensions, Swansea University, Swansea Institute of Higher Education, and Swansea NHS Trust. 3M Company (NYSE: MMM); formerly Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company until 2002) is an American corporation with a worldwide presence that produces over 55,000 products, including adhesives, abrasives, laminates, passive fire protection, electronic circuits and displays, and pharmaceuticals. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... International Rectifier Corp. ... Visteon is an automotive parts company spun off from the Ford Motor Company. ... Neath Port Talbot (Welsh: ) is a county borough in Glamorgan, south Wales. ... Electronic Data Systems (EDS) (NYSE: EDS, LSE: EDC) is a global business and technology services company that defined the outsourcing business when it was established in 1962 by Ross Perot. ... HSBC Holdings plc (LSE: HSBA, SEHK: 005, NYSE: HBC, Euronext: HSBC, BSX: 1077223879) is one of the largest banking groups in the world, ranked the fifth-largest company and third-largest banking company in the world in Forbes Global 2000. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Virgin Media, Telewest and Virgin. ... BT Group plc (formerly British Telecommunications plc) which trades as BT (also previously as British Telecom and is still commonly known as such amongst the general public) is the privatised UK state telecommunications operator. ... For other uses, see Tesco (disambiguation). ... City & County of Swansea council http://www. ... The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (the DVLA) is an agency of the Department for Transport in the United Kingdom. ... Land Registry Head Office, 32 Lincolns Inn Fields Land Registry (formerly known as Her Majestys Land Registry) is a British Governmental organisation created in 1862. ... The Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) (Welsh: Llywodraeth Cynulliad Cymru, LlCC) is the executive body of the National Assembly for Wales, consisting of the First Minister and his Cabinet. ... The Department for Work and Pensions is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security. ... The University of Wales, Swansea (Welsh: Prifysgol Cymru, Abertawe; styled as: Swansea University) is a constituent institution of the federal University of Wales, located in Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom. ... // Swansea Institute of Higher Education Swansea Institute of Higher Education was born in 1992, when it achieved its status as an independent Higher Education Corporation, but its roots go back over 150 years. ...

The largest single major category of jobs in Swansea is associate professional & technical occupations (comprising 13.7% of employment), although compared to the Welsh and UK averages the city also has relatively large shares of administrative & secretarial occupations (13.4%), elementary occupations (13.1%) and sales & customer service occupations (10.7%). There are proportionally more managers & senior officials in Swansea than Wales as a whole (13.3% compared to 12.5%), but this lags behind the overall UK figure (14.8%), reflecting the lack of any large regional corporate headquarters presence with the high value-added employment that brings. Corporate redirects here. ... Headquarters (HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are concentrated. ... Value added refers to the additional value created at a particular stage of production or through image and marketing. ...

In May 2006, 71.9% of Swansea's working age residents were in employment, 23.3% were economically inactive and 6.1% unemployed. The economic activity rate is higher than the Welsh average but notably lower than the overall UK figure. This differential may be partly due to the relatively large number of students in Swansea (the city has a university and an institute of higher education), but is also caused by a large element of 'hidden unemployment' especially in the more deprived areas such as Townhill and much of Swansea East. Only 8.1% of Swansea residents are self-employed, compared to an average of more than 12% in Wales and the UK as a whole. Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor Look up economics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Representation of a university class, 1350s. ... The University of Cambridge is an institute of higher learning. ... The electoral ward of Townhill in the City and County of Swansea, South Wales, consists of some or all of the following areas: Cwm-Gwyn, Mayhill, Mount Pleasant, Townhill in the parliamentary constituency of Swansea West. ... Swansea East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ...

Swansea has a higher proportion of working age population qualified to degree (NVQ level 4 or equivalent) level than the Welsh average, but a lower proportion than the UK average. Similarly, fewer Swansea residents have no qualifications (16%) relative to Wales as a whole, but the local figure is slightly higher than the UK average. A National Vocational Qualification, or NVQ, is a certificate of vocational education in the United Kingdom. ... The team qualification may refer to: Certification A process of deciding the running order in many auto racing events This is a disambiguation page &#8212; a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

The city is a centre of net in-commuting, with around 16,000 people making a daily journey outside the authority for work (principally to neighbouring Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire) and 25,100 commuting in (again, mainly from Neath Port Talbot and Carmarthenshire).^[1] See Commute for other meanings. ... Neath Port Talbot (Welsh: ) is a county borough in Glamorgan, south Wales. ... Carmarthenshire (Welsh: ) is a county in Wales. ...

Surveys show that annual full-time gross median earnings for Swansea residents are lower than the Welsh and UK averages (£21,003 against £21,023 and £22,901). The annual gross median earnings for those who work in Swansea are even lower, only £19,391. Similarly, Gross Value Added (GVA) per head is relatively low in Swansea at £13,507 compared to a UK figure of £16,485, although here Swansea performs better than Wales as a whole (£12,716).^[2] However, since the cost of living is lower in Swansea (indeed most of Wales) compared to many other parts of the UK, lower earnings and GVA per head do not necessarily signify a major gap in living standards.^[3] The Gross value added is GDP - taxes on products + subsidies on products = GVA GVA + taxes on products - subsidies on products = GDP See also Measures of national income and output External links GVA - Gross Value Added ... The Standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people. ...

Although some surveys place Swansea as the 18th largest retail centre in the UK - a high placement considering the size of its population - in rankings of shopping attractiveness and competitiveness Swansea is usually placed outside the top 50, largely because of the low quality of the city centre retail offer. A peculiarity of Swansea is the lack of employment in the city centre, relative to other towns and cities of similar size. Many major employers have moved to the Enterprise Park or other city fringe locations; only 4,510 office jobs are now are located in the city centre, compared to 13,910 in Cardiff. This reduces spend in the city centre economy and helps to underpin the weakness of the local retail sector. Low demand prevents speculative development of new commercial premises, which has created a vicious circle of city centre decline. ^[4] Drawing of a self-service store. ... Shopping is the purchase of goods and services from retailers. ... City Centre is a Local Government ward in the City of Manchester. ... Cardiff (English:  Welsh: ) is the capital, largest and core city of Wales. ... Vicious Circle is an album released in 1995 by L.A. Guns. ...

Given the weakness of the local market, most new retail and office developments are supported by public sector 'gap funding'. The former Welsh Development Agency promoted the regeneration of several sites in the city, in recent years most notably the SA1 Waterfront development.^[5] The WDA's Technium concept of incubator space for high technology firms (often spin outs from the local university) was launched at the SA1 site, and additional facilities have now been constructed there and on the university campus. The Assembly and IBM are supporting a new Institute of Life Sciences at the university, which it is hoped will generate high skill, high value-added jobs in future.^[6] The Welsh Development Agency (WDA) is a public sector quango or NGO funded by the British government for the purpose of encouraging business development and investment in Wales. ... Urban regeneration (also called urban renewal in American English) is a movement in urban planning that reached its peak in the United States from the late 1940s through the early 1970s. ... Swansea Docks is an Atlantic shipping port in Swansea, south Wales. ... High tech refers to high technology, technology that is at the cutting-edge and the most advanced currently available. ... Firm can have several meanings: Firm - a loose legal term for a company. ... The common definition of Spin out (or spin off) is when a division of a company or organization becomes an independent business. ... The Universitätscampus Wien, Austria ( details) Campus (plural: campuses) is derived from the (identical) Latin word for field or open space. English gets the words camp and campus from this origin. ... International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. ... Biology studies the variety of life (clockwise from top-left) E. coli, tree fern, gazelle, Goliath beetle Biology is the science of life (from the Greek words bios = life and logos = word). ... A skill is an ability, usually learned, to perform actions. ...

References

1. ^ source: http://www.swansea.gov.uk/media/pdf/i/r/Swa_LMEc_Profile_May06.pdf
2. ^ source: http://www.swansea.gov.uk/media/pdf/i/r/Swa_LMEc_Profile_May06.pdf
3. ^ source: http://www.wales.gov.uk/subitradeindustry/content/wave/wave-report-e.pdf
4. ^ source: http://www.swanseacitycentre.com/media/pdf/n/f/city_centre_strategic_framework_060623.pdf
5. ^ source: Swansea SA1 Waterfront
6. ^ source: http://www.swan.ac.uk/research/centresandinstitutes/ILS/