Trends in employment

Employment is vital to the growth of the city. We monitor the number of jobs in different sectors, the number of people working and the growth of the priority sectors in the city such as advanced engineering and marine engineering.

Core Strategy Target 6.3

A net increase in the number of employees of approximately 1,800 per annum (average).

This target has not yet been achieved.

Between 2003 and 2007, the total number of employees grew by around 7,300 (over 1,800 per annum – marginally above target), with the bulk of this expansion coming from education (+2,700), health (+1,800) and public administration (+1,300). The manufacturing sector saw a decline of some 1,200 over this time period; however, this echoes national trends as the sector continues to restructure in response to pressures from low cost competitors like China.

The slow down in employee growth between 2007 and 2008 followed by a sharp contraction in 2009 (when total employee numbers fell by around 5,600), reflects the impact of the recession on Plymouth’s labour market. This effectively cancelled out much of the previous gain at least in the short run. Public administration and education, key sources of growth up to 2007, saw the sharpest declines in employee numbers between 2008 and 2009.

The transport and communications sector has shown some resilience to the recession with 1,300 employees added in 2009; other sectors showing growth were health, hotels and catering, retail/distribution and financial services.

Employees in the travel to work area data table [72KB]

Employment rate (%)

Note: Employment rate measured as a percentage of the working age population aged 16 to 64 years and APS survey period January to December of each year (Plymouth UA 2004-2010, Source: Annual Population Survey (APS), Nomis.

Percentage of working age population in employment graph [15KB]

Between 2004 and 2009, around 71 per cent of Plymouth’s working age population were employed. This was about 1 per cent below the national average. In 2009 the employment rate briefly rose above the national levels but fell again in 2010 to 69.4 per cent in Plymouth compared to 70.2 per cent nationally.

At 69.4 per cent, the employment rate remains well below the target of 74.1%. This needs to be seen in the context of a significant downturn in national and local labour markets. However the public sector has provided a disproportionately large proportion of employment growth in Plymouth in recent years, and spending cuts in this sector will further reduce the employment rate. The ability to raise the employment rate in the longer term depends on the extent the private sector is able to pick up the slack and generate new employment opportunities.

This page of the annual monitoring report was updated December 2011.