Occupation and Earning - January 2015

Published: February 2015

Occupation and Earnings - January 2015
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Occupational structure (Sept 2014)

% of all people in employment by occupation

Area	Somerset	Mendip	Sedgemoor	South Somerset	Taunton Deane	West Somerset	HotSW LEP	UK
Managers, directors and senior officials	13.1	13.5	17	12.7	9.6	12.5	11.2	10.2
Professional	14.8	18.1	16.2	14.1	14.5	N/A	17.4	19.9
Associate professional & technical	9.8	9.9	6.5	9.8	14.6	N/A	11.5	14
Admin & secretarial	9	5.4	9.3	4.9	15.9	16.2	9.4	10.7
Skilled trades	15	15.4	16.2	12.3	13.8	29.5	13.2	10.8
Caring, leisure & other service	10.8	11.6	3.5	15.1	9.6	17	10.6	9.1
Sales & customer service	8.6	4.9	8.2	9.5	11.4	7	8.2	7.8
Process, plant & machine operatives	7.7	9.1	11.3	8	3.2	N/A	6.2	6.2
Elementary occupations	11	12.2	11.7	13.2	7.3	N/A	11.9	10.7

Source: Annual Population Survey, NOMIS 2015 (*Some data unavailable due to small sample size)

The largest occupation groups in Somerset are skilled trades (15%) and professional roles (14.8%), compared to 10.8% and 19.9% respectively at a national level. Managers, directors and senior officials are well represented in all Somerset districts except Taunton Deane compared to the UK as a whole .The proportion of people employed in these senior occupations in Somerset increased by 3.4% between 2013 and 2014. Sales & customer service occupations showed an increase (2.1%) over the same period.

Source: Annual Population Survey, NOMIS 2015. Graph uses annual data. Click to enlarge

Public sector employment (Sept 2014)

% of people in employment who work in the public sector

Area	% Public Sector Sept 2008	% Public Sector Sept 2014	Change 2008-2014
Somerset	21.3	16.9	-4.4
Mendip	20.4	15.3	-5.1
Sedgemoor	17.8	17.9	0.1
South Somerset	19.8	14.8	-5.0
Taunton Deane	28.9	22.1	-6.8
West Somerset	16.9	9.4	-7.5
Heart of the South West LEP	24.3	23.5	-0.8
UK	23.9	22.8	-1.1

Source: Annual Population Survey, NOMIS 2015. *Estimate and confidence interval unreliable since the group sample size is small.

Source: Annual Population Survey, NOMIS 2015

Somerset has a smaller proportion of people employed in the public sector than the UK and Heart of the South West area; 16.9% compared to 22.8% and 23.5% respectively.

Within the County there is a particular concentration of public sector employment in Taunton Deane (22.1%).

Public sector employment in Somerset peaked at 23.8% of the workforce in 2009. Since then, the number of people employed in the public sector in the County has decreased from 59,200 to 41,900.

Earnings (2014)

Average earnings chart

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), NOMIS 2014 (updated annually). Figures are not available for Sedgemoor (2014) and West Somerset (2013) due to statistical unreliability. ASHE data is not produced for LEP areas.

Average earnings in Somerset consistently lag behind the UK level. Mendip has the highest median earnings in the County (£26,506), an increase of 1.1% over the year. West Somerset has the lowest (£20,629) median earnings. Taunton Deane had the highest annual increase of 9.5% (£25,810). NB: The median is the value below which 50% of employees’ earnings fall.

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As at 1 January 2012 there were 5,410 military and civilian personnel employed by the Ministry of Defence (based upon full time equivalent) in Somerset.