Yes, it's very much a post-industrial city, from late 1960s until probably mid 1990s was pretty much relentless industrial and population decline, in fact population of the city proper had been declining since pre-WWII with suburbanization as people left the crowded inner city.
From the mid-90s after a big IRA terrorist bomb made a big mess of parts of the city centre there were efforts to kick-start urban regeneration there and at the dock areas nearby in Salford which had become disused and abandoned by the mid-80s. That led to a building boom in the early 00s and the city population statrted growing again, the financial crash of 2008 put the brakes on for a few years but now development is back on track.
The post-industrial legacy means there are a lot of empty sites around the fringes of the city centre for new projects, or in some cases conversions/renovations of old warehouse and mill buildings.
The population of the whole metro area is growing at a moderate pace, but much of that is concentrated in the central core which is growing pretty rapidly.
Nice quote from Manchester in your signatute btw Slo.
