Employment

1Over the past few decades there have been some major shifts in the employment sector within the UK. The most noticable shift has been away from maufacturing and towards the service sectors, which has been happening since the end of the Second World War. Employment in the service sector has increased 45% to 21.5 million from 14.8 million in 1978. Meanwhile manufacturing jobs have decreased by 54% from 6.9 million to 3.2 million in the same 27 year period.. This is represented in the graph below: INSERT 4.13 Figure

4.13

Data for Figure

4.13

Employee jobs:1 by sex and industry

Employee jobs:1 by sex and industry

United Kingdom Millions

United Kingdom

Millions Men

Women

Manufacturing Services Other Manufacturing Services 1978 4.768 7.045 2.134 2.152 7.756 1979 4.729 7.159 2.155 2.160 8.063 1980 4.540 7.193 2.141 2.040 8.150 1981 4.094 6.995 1.982 1.799 8.031 1982 3.854 6.959 1.878 1.697 8.016 1983 3.624 6.966 1.816 1.607 8.014 1984 3.514 7.056 1.773 1.606 8.267 1985 3.475 7.135 1.733 1.600 8.463 1986 3.379 7.138 1.649 1.569 8.633 1987 3.315 7.173 1.626 1.564 8.895 1988 3.342 7.421 1.633 1.571 9.310 1989 3.333 7.469 1.633 1.562 9.711 1990 3.259 7.631 1.627 1.524 9.975 1991 2.976 7.502 1.505 1.391 9.980 1992 2.828 7.444 1.370 1.314 9.947 1993 2.697 7.396 1.258 1.256 10.023 1994 2.721 7.414 1.206 1.249 10.142 1995 2.815 7.556 1.160 1.257 10.348 1996 2.873 7.574 1.141 1.246 10.618 1997 2.910 7.884 1.257 1.266 10.711 1998 2.946 8.079 1.317 1.251 10.767 1999 2.912 8.426 1.314 1.139 10.949 2000 2.861 8.664 1.378 1.093 11.236 2001 2.749 9.002 1.331 1.052 11.408 2002 2.603 9.157 1.322 0.993 11.591 2003 2.518 9.348 1.334 0.895 11.684 2004 2.439 9.503 1.373 0.841 11.773 2005 2.375 9.647 1.386 0.809 11.874 1 At June each year. 2 Includes agriculture, construction, energy and water. Source: Short-term Turnover and Employment Survey, Office for National Statistics 2

12 Women - services 10 Men - services 8

6 Men - manufacturing 4

2

Men - other 2 Women - manufacturing

Women - other

2

0 1978

1982

1986

1990

1994

1998

2002

1 At June each year. 2 Includes agriculture, construction, energy and water. Source: Short-term Turnover and Employment Survey, Office for National Statistics

2005

In 2005 it is shown that the majority (22%) of women were employed in administrative or secretarial jobs, 20% of men held ‘skilled trade’ positions and 18%occupied jobs as managers and senior officials. There are also 3.6 million self employed people in the UK, 13% of all those in employment. Of these 74% are men, a third of whom work in the construction industry. There has also bee a large growth in the numbers of people working from home, from 2.3 million in 1997 to 3.1 million in 2005. The majority of these were ‘teleworkers’ , 77% , this figure had risen from 40%. This marks an increase in the percentage of teleworkers compared to the over all work force, from 4% to 8% between 1997 and 2005. These figures are represented in a graph below. INSERT 4.15

Other2 0.332 0.338 0.343 0.339 0.337 0.333 0.330 0.330 0.325 0.328 0.337 0.348 0.347 0.339 0.328 0.320 0.310 0.275 0.279 0.254 0.312 0.319 0.325 0.330 0.298 0.291 0.298 0.321

Figure

4.15

Data for Figure

4.15

Homeworkers1 and teleworkers2 as a percentage of people in employment3

Homeworkers1 and teleworkers2 as a percentage of people in employment3

Unite d Kingdom

United Kingdom

Percentages 12 All homew orkers 10

8 Telew orkers 6

Percentages All homew orkers

Telew orkers

1997

8.8

3.5

1998

9.4

4.0

1999

9.7

4.5

2000

9.8

5.1

2001

9.5

5.4

2002

10.1

6.8

2003

10.5

7.5

2004

10.8

7.8

2005

11.0

8.5

1 Homeworkers are people who mainly work in their home, or in different places using home as a base, in their main job.

4

2 Teleworkers are a subgroup of homeworkers, who use both a telephone and a computer to work at home, or in different places using home as a base. See Appendix, Part 4: Homeworkers and teleworkers.

2

0 1997

1999

2001

2003

3 At spring each year. Data are for people aged 16 and over and excludes people on government employment and training schemes. Data are not seasonally adjusted and have been adjusted in line with population estimates published in spring 2003. See Appendix, Part 4: LFS reweighting. Estimates have b een adjusted for nonresponse to the homeworking and teleworking questions. Source: Labour Force Survey, Office for National Stati stics

2005

1 Homeworkers are people who mainly work in their home, or in different places using home as a b ase, in their main job. 2 Teleworkers are a sub group of homeworkers, who use both a telephone and a computer to work at home, or in different places using home as a base. See Appendix, Part 4: Homeworkers and teleworkers. 3 At spring each year. Data are for people aged 16 and over and excludes people on government employment and training schemes. Data are not seasonally adjusted and have been adjusted in line with population estimates published in spring 2003. See Appendix, Part 4: LFS reweighting. Estimates have b een adjusted for nonresponse to the homeworking and teleworking questions. Source: Labour Force Survey, Offi ce for Nati onal Statisti cs

The employment rate in the UK fell recently to 74.4%, however, there has also been a fall in the number of people claiming Jobseekers allowance. This therefor means that there has been a growth in what’s termed economic inactivity, people of working age who are neither working or actively seeking work. This may include young people in full time education (National Statistics Online). The employment rates in the UK are fairly high in comparison with the rest of Europe, the figures for 2004 are represented in the graph below: INSERT 4.4 Table

4. 4

Employment rates:1 by sex, EU comparison, 2004 Percentages Men

Women

All

Men

Women

Denmark

79.7

71.6

75.7

All

Luxembourg

72.4

50.6

61.6

Netherlands

80.2

65.8

Sw eden

73.6

70.5

73.1

Lithuania

64.7

57.8

61.2

72.1

Spain

73.8

48.3

United Kingdom

77.8

61.1

65.6

71.6

Belgium

67.9

52.6

Cyprus

60.3

79.8

58.7

68.9

Greece

73.7

45.2

59.4

Austria

74.9

60.7

67.8

Italy

70.1

45.2

57.6

Portugal

74.2

61.7

67.8

Slovakia

63.2

50.9

57.0

Finland

69.7

65.6

67.6

Hungary

63.1

50.7

56.8

Ireland

75.9

56.5

66.3

Malta

75.2

32.8

54.1

Slovenia

70.0

60.5

65.3

Poland

57.2

46.2

51.7

Germany

70.8

59.2

65.0

EU-25 average

70.9

55.7

63.3

Czech Republic

72.3

56.0

64.2

France

69.0

57.4

63.1

Estonia

66.4

60.0

63.0

Latvia

66.4

58.5

62.3

1 See Appendix, Part 4: Eurostat rates. Source: Labour Force Survey, Eurostat

There was an average of 622,800 job vacancies in the three months to Feb 2007, a rise of 24,800 on the previous quarter and 19,700 over the year. Average growth in earnings

excluding bonuses was 3.6%, in Jan 2007 was 3.6%, a decrease of 0.1% from the previous month. However, including bonuses it was up 0.2% over the same period to 4.2% (National Statistics Online)