Employment and Economic Activity - January 2015

Published: February 2015

• Economic Factsheet: Employment and Economic Activity - January 2015
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The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) is a rich dataset from which small area analyses can be derived at various levels.  The survey collects employment information from businesses across the whole of the UK economy for each site that they operate.

• Employment is the number of people in employment. It consists of people aged 16 and over who did paid work (as an employee or self-employed working proprietors). The BRES figure for ‘total employment’ is often used to show the number of jobs in an area.
• An employee is anyone aged 16 years or over that an organisation directly pays from its payroll, in return for carrying out a full/part-time job or being on a training scheme.  (Excludes: voluntary workers, self-employed, working owners who are not paid via PAYE).

Total employment (2013)

Source: BRES 2013. NB. All figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

‘Total employment’ (jobs) in Somerset increased by 2.8% between 2012 and 2013, compared to an increase of 1.4% at national level. The majority of the County’s jobs are located in South Somerset (66,100), whilst only 6% are to be found in West Somerset (12,600). 

Source: BRES 2013

Somerset’s largest sector in employment terms is health (16.3%), followed by manufacturing (13.1%).  The smallest sectors are agriculture, forestry and fishing (0.2%), and finance and insurance (1.3%).

The motor trade sector had the largest annual increase between 2012 and 2013 (17.7%).  Employment in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector fell by 25.5% over the same period.

Source: BRES 2013

Somerset has a higher proportion of part-time workers than the national level (37% compared to 32%)’ Levels of part-time working have remained largely consistent since 2009.

Economic activity (Sept 2014)

Source: Annual Population Survey, NOMIS 2014

80.1% of Somerset’s residents aged 16-64 are economically active, compared to 77.4% nationally.  Within the County, South Somerset has the highest economic activity rate (83.5%). Mendip, Sedgemoor and West Somerset have seen decreases in economic activity over the last year. Males have a consistently higher economic activity rate than females across Somerset, the LEP and the UK.

Employment rate (Sept 2014)

Source: Annual Population Survey, NOMIS 2014

Somerset’s employment rate is higher than the national level (76.2% compared to 72.3%).  South Somerset has the highest employment rate of all the districts and has seen the greatest increase over the last year (+3.8%)