page_title: Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Metropolitan Borough of Dudley / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Merry Hill Shopping Centre A view from Central Way.
context_page_description: The Metropolitan Borough of Dudley is a metropolitan borough of West Midlands in England. It was created in 1974 following the Local Government Act 1972, through a merger of the existing Dudley County Borough with the municipal boroughs of Stourbridge and Halesowen. The borough borders Sandwell to the east, the city of Birmingham to the south east, Bromsgrove to the south in Worcestershire, South Staffordshire District to the west, and the city of Wolverhampton to the north.
  Being a metropolitan borough Dudley is effectively a unitary authority, with the exceptions of Transport for West Midlands, fire and police services, and the local government pension fund, which are jointly run by the seven metropolitan boroughs of the West Midlands county.
  For Eurostat purposes, Dudley is a NUTS 3 region, and is one of seven boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region.
context_section_description: A part of the Black Country, Dudley traditionally has been an industrial centre of manufacturing, quarrying, and mining, although this has declined in more recent years, with a shift in focus towards the service sector (accounting for 79.1% of employment) and tourism. Despite this, there are still numerous large industrial sites around the borough, such as the Pensnett Trading Estate, with the manufacturing industries making up 15.3% of employment.
  Tourism is of increasing importance to the local economy, with approximately 6,600 people employed within the sector. Attractions such as the Black Country Living Museum and Dudley Zoo bring in hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
  The Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Brierley Hill is one of the largest shopping centres in the UK and is the main retail centre of the borough, with an average of 23.5 million visitors a year, and houses branches of several large retailers including Debenhams, Marks & Spencer, and Next.
  Other large employers in the borough include JCDecaux UK, which has its Birmingham area office in Halesowen, Rentokil Initial, and Midtherm Engineering.
caption: The Merry Hill Shopping Centre is one of the largest shopping centres in the UK
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