Occupation and Earnings - December 2015

Published: December 2015

• Economic Factsheet: Occupation and Earnings - December 2015
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Occupational structure (June 2015)

% of all people in employment by occupation (Green = higher than UK, Red = lower than UK, Amber = Equal to UK)

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

The largest occupation group in Somerset are professional roles (14.4%), compared to 19.7% at a national level.  Skilled trades are well represented in all Somerset districts compared to the UK as a whole.  Sedgemoor had the highest proportion employed within Managers, directors and senior official sector with 16.9%.

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

Public sector employment (June 2015)

Somerset has a smaller proportion of people employed in the public sector than the UK and Heart of the South West area; 19.6% compared to 22.5% and 23.2% respectively.

Within the County there is a particular concentration of public sector employment in Sedgemoor (23.3%) and Taunton Deane (20.2%)

Public sector employment in Somerset peaked at 24.7% of the workforce in (Jan – Dec) 2009. Since then, the number of people employed in the public sector in the County has decreased.

% of people in employment who work in the public sector

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

Source: Annual Population Survey, NOMIS 2015

Earnings (2015)

Average earnings in Somerset consistently lag behind the UK level.  However, West Somerset has the highest median earnings in the County (£30,465), this is higher than the median annual earnings for UK (£27,645). South Somerset has the lowest (£23,738) median earnings. NB: The median is the value below which 50% of employees’ earnings fall.   

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