Lancashire and District Employment Structure
2006

January 2008

Photograph showing a man looking for a job

Introduction

The most recent detailed benchmark count of employment in Lancashire is the 2006 (External) Annual Business Inquiry (ABI) , conducted by the (External) Office for National Statistics (ONS) . The ABI, first introduced in 1998, collects information on the number of employee jobs by place of work. It should be noted that the ABI estimates differ from those provided by both the Census of Population and the Labour Force Survey which include the self-employed as well as employees and in which enumeration is usually by place of residence rather than by place of work.

Overview

The 2006 ABI survey provided estimates suggesting that there were more than 610,000 employee jobs in the Lancashire NUTS-2 region in December of that year. This number was about 43,000 higher (+7.6%) than in 1998 when the Inquiry was first introduced. The 2006 employee workforce (less farm-based agricultural jobs) was divided almost equally between males and females. More than two-thirds of these employees worked on a full-time basis though there were gender differences. Close to 47% of the employee jobs filled by women were of a part-time nature (i.e. working for 30 or fewer hours per week. The profile for men remained much more heavily weighted towards full-time jobs with 85% working on a full-time basis (Table 1).

Table 1 Employee Jobs Profile, Lancashire NUTS-2, 2006
Employment Status
No. of Employees
% of Employees

Male full-time workers
262,900
43.4
Male part-time workers
45,000
7.4
Female full-time workers
156,600
25.9
Female part-time workers
141,400
23.3
Male workers
307,900
50.8
Female workers
298,000
49.2
Full-time workers
419,500
69.2
Part-time workers
186,300
30.8

Total
605,900
100.0
Note These figures are aggregates from which agricultural class 0100 has been excluded.
Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry 2006

Of the total 2006 employee jobs in the Lancashire NUTS-2 area, 129,700 or over 21% were classified to the production and construction industries, less than 1% were in agriculture, forestry and fishing, and the remainder (475,000 or 78%) were in service activities of one sort or another, of which the wholesale and distributive trades, health and social work, other business activities, education, and hotels and restaurants were the largest individual components (Table 2). The Lancashire jobs represented 2.3% of the Great Britain total and a fifth of those in the North West Region.

Table 2 Employee Jobs by Industrial Sector, 2006
Sector
Lancashire County
Lancashire NUTS-2
North West
Great Britain
No.
%
No.
%
%
%

Agriculture, forestry and fishing
5,300
1.1
5,500
0.9
0.5
0.9
Mining, energy and water
2,400
0.5
2,400
0.4
0.3
0.6
Manufacturing
81,700
16.7
99,000
16.2
12.5
10.9
Construction
24,800
5.1
28,300
4.6
5.0
4.8
Wholesale and retail trades
82,500
16.9
102,400
16.8
17.0
16.7
Hotels and restaurants
34,600
7.1
45,700
7.5
7.0
6.8
Transport and communication
22,800
4.7
28,000
4.6
6.0
5.9
Financial intermediation
9,900
2.0
11,700
1.9
3.4
3.9
Other business services
62,000
12.7
74,900
12.3
15.8
17.3
Public administration and defence
30,100
6.2
41,100
6.7
5.6
5.5
Education
50,600
10.3
61,500
10.1
9.4
9.2
Health and social work
62,300
12.7
80,300
13.2
12.7
12.2
Other services
20,200
4.1
29,300
4.8
4.7
5.3

All industries and services
489,200
100.0
610,200
100.0
100.0
100.0
Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry 2006

Employment Change

Changes to the methodology of data collection, a change to an up-dated Standard Industrial Classification (SIC,2003), together with the inclusion (for technical reasons) of a number of employee jobs based elsewhere rather than in the sub-region itself (and vice-versa), tend to confuse estimates of job changes over time. At face value, however the 2006 estimate of employee jobs in Lancashire was approximately 43,000 or 7.6% higher than in 1998. This rate of growth was respectable by the sub-region's historical standards but as in the case of a number of other economic indicators, slightly lagged that of both the UK (+8.1%) and the wider North West Region (+8.0%) (Table 3).

Table 3 Employment Change, 1998-2006
Sector
Number of Employee Jobs
% Change
1998
2000
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
1998-2006

Agriculture, forestry and fishing
7,600
6,400
5,800
5,500
5,400
5,600
5,500
-28.1
Mining, energy and water
2,700
2,800
2,300
2,100
1,700
2,000
2,400
-9.0
Manufacturing
138,300
129,100
115,700
113,900
109,300
103,100
99,000
-28.4
Construction
21,200
28,900
34,200
30,100
36,200
33,200
28,300
+33.9
Wholesale and retail
103,500
97,300
103,600
102,100
107,100
102,300
102,400
-1.1
Hotels and restaurants
38,400
42,300
40,200
42,000
49,500
41,200
45,700
+19.1
Transport and communications
27,300
25,600
28,200
27,100
26,400
24,400
28,000
+2.6
Financial intermediation
13,500
12,100
12,000
11,500
11,600
11,400
11,700
-13.1
Other business services
45,200
56,600
62,200
62,100
63,400
69,600
74,900
+65.7
Public administration and defence
37,600
36,800
36,500
37,900
40,100
39,400
41,100
+9.5
Education
45,100
43,300
58,800
57,800
62,300
63,800
61,500
+36.4
Health and social work
65,800
70,400
68,300
74,400
79,500
83,700
80,300
+22.1
Other services
21,200
25,700
30,000
26,400
25,300
24,600
29,300
+38.3

Lancashire County
449,200
454,600
476,400
475,700
494,900
485,400
489,200
+8.9
Lancashire NUTS-2
567,200
577,100
598,400
593,300
617,900
604,400
610,200
+7.6

North West
2,788,600
2,835,000
2,968,400
2,973,100
3,035,700
2,987,800
3,010,700
+8.0
Great Britain
24,355,000
25,214,600
25,593,700
25,710,600
26,067,500
26,496,600
26,320,600
+8.1
Note The 2003/06 ABI data is based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2003 which differs from previous years' ABI data. This may give rise to discontinuities.
Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry

Employment patterns over the period generally continued to reflect a shift in distribution from the production to the service industries and from direct employment in large companies to greater representation in small and medium sized enterprises. The well developed tendency for a shift from male to female employee jobs and from full-time to part-time working continued but was rather less in evidence over this more recent period than hitherto, presumably reflecting in part the sustainability of the economic up-turn encouraging employers to commit to more permanent and full-time positions. There was also some reversal of the trend from "public" to "private" employment fuelled by the expansion of expenditure in public services (particularly in health and education) set in train by government.

Structural Characteristics

Lancashire continues to have a large and exceptionally diverse economy. Apart from a handful of relatively minor and geographically specialised industries like coke ovens, the mining of uranium and thorium ores and tobacco manufacture, virtually every industrial group defined by the official Standard Industrial Classification (SIC,2003) is represented in the sub-region.

As illustrated by the broad industrial characteristics given in Table 2 above, by comparison with the nation the local economy remains particularly strong with regard to manufacturing employment: some 99,000 people or 16.2% of all employee jobs are still in this key sector compared with only 10.9% in Great Britain at large. Conversely, whilst nearly 83% of employee jobs nationally are in the heterogeneous services sector "only" 78% of local jobs are so classified. Local representation in services is rather above average in many "public service" activities like public administration and defence, education, and health and social work, and also slightly in hotels and restaurants linked to the tourism trade. However, under-representation remains particularly pronounced in activities relating to financial intermediation and other business related services. A rather more detailed industrial division analysis together with Great Britain and North West comparisons is illustrated in Table 4.

Table 4 Industrial Employment Structure, 2006
Sector
% of Employee Jobs
Lancashire NUTS-2
North West
Great Britain

Agriculture, forestry and fishing
0.9
0.5
0.9
Mining and quarrying
0.1
0.1
0.2
Food, beverages and tobacco
1.9
1.8
1.5
Textile industry
0.8
0.6
0.3
Wearing apparel; leather and leather products
0.3
0.2
0.2
Wood and wood products
0.3
0.3
0.3
Pulp, paper and paper products
0.6
0.4
0.3
Printing and publishing
0.9
0.8
1.1
Coke, petroleum products and nuclear fuel
0.3
0.4
0.1
Chemical industry
1.1
1.3
0.7
Rubber and plastic products
1.2
0.9
0.7
Other non-metallic mineral products
0.4
0.4
0.4
Basic metals
0.1
0.1
0.3
Fabricated metal products
1.6
1.2
1.2
Other machinery and equipment
1.1
0.9
1.0
Office machinery and computers
0.1
0.1
0.1
Electrical machinery and apparatus
0.4
0.4
0.4
Radio, TV, communications, etc. equipment
0.1
0.1
0.2
Medical, precision and optical instruments
0.2
0.3
0.4
Motor vehicles
0.7
0.6
0.6
Other transport equipment
2.8
0.8
0.5
Furniture and other manufacturing
1.2
0.7
0.6
Recycling
0.1
0.1
0.1
Electricity, gas and water
0.3
0.3
0.4
Construction
4.6
5.0
4.8
Sale, repair, etc. of motor vehicles
2.2
2.0
2.1
Wholesale and commission trade
4.4
4.2
4.2
Retail trade and repairs
10.2
10.8
10.5
Hotels and restaurants
7.5
7.0
6.8
Land transport
2.1
2.3
2.0
Water and air transport
0.1
0.2
0.4
Other transport activities
1.1
1.8
1.7
Post and telecommunications
1.3
1.8
1.8
Financial intermediation
1.1
2.0
2.2
Insurance and pension funding
0.2
0.7
0.7
Activities auxiliary to financial intermediation
0.6
0.8
1.0
Real estate activities
1.1
1.5
1.6
Renting of machinery and equipment
0.7
0.6
0.6
Computer and related activities
1.7
1.7
2.0
Research and development
0.1
0.2
0.4
Other business activities
8.8
11.7
12.7
Public administration and defence
6.7
5.6
5.5
Education
10.1
9.4
9.2
Health and social work
13.2
12.7
12.2
Sewage, refuse disposal, sanitation, etc.
0.4
0.4
0.4
Membership organisations
0.7
0.7
0.9
Recreational, cultural and sporting activities
2.6
2.5
2.8
Other service activities
1.1
1.1
1.2
Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry 2006

Employment by District

The distribution and broad structure of employee jobs across Lancashire by sub-region and district authority is shown in Table 5 and Figure 1. As "job centres" the size of these districts ranges from 22,500 employee jobs in Rossendale with 3.7% of the Lancashire region total to 84,800 in Preston (13.9% of total jobs).

Table 5 Employee Jobs by Local Authority District and Sub-Region, 2006

Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing
Mining, Energy and Water
Manufacturing
Construction
Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants

North Lancashire
No.
1,700
1,400
27,400
8,200
50,100
%
0.9
0.7
14.1
4.2
25.8
Blackpool
100
*
3,500
1,700
18,700
Fylde
400
*
16,600
1,600
8,500
Lancaster
600
1,200
3,600
2,700
13,000
Wyre
600
*
3,700
2,300
10,000

Central Lancashire
No.
3,000
600
22,800
11,600
51,400
%
1.4
0.3
10.7
5.4
24.1
Chorley
400
*
3,300
2,300
10,100
Preston
300
300
5,500
3,200
19,600
South Ribble
400
200
7,100
4,100
10,800
West Lancashire
1,800
*
6,900
2,100
10,900

Lancashire West
No.
4,700
1,900
50,200
19,800
101,600
%
1.1
0.5
12.5
4.9
24.9

East Lancashire
No.
800
500
48,800
8,500
46,500
%
0.4
0.2
24.1
4.2
23.0
Blackburn with Darwen
100
*
13,800
1,800
12,300
Burnley
*
*
7,400
1,200
7,900
Hyndburn
*
300
5,600
1,200
8,500
Pendle
100
*
10,500
1,500
6,800
Ribble Valley
400
*
6,200
1,300
5,900
Rossendale
100
*
5,200
1,600
5,200

Lancashire County
No.
5,300
2,400
81,700
24,800
117,100
%
1.1
0.5
16.7
5.1
23.9
Lancashire NUTS-2
No.
5,500
2,400
99,000
28,300
148,100
%
0.9
0.4
16.2
4.6
24.3

North West
No.
14,900
10,300
377,100
149,900
720,400
%
0.5
0.3
12.5
5.0
23.9
Great Britain
No.
227,300
157,400
2,863,400
1,257,200
6,192,400
%
0.9
0.6
10.9
4.8
23.5

Transport and Communication
Finance and Business Services
Public Administration, Education and Health
Other Services
All Employees

North Lancashire
No.
7,600
24,100
63,200
10,800
194,400
%
3.9
12.4
32.5
5.5
100.0
Blackpool
1,900
6,100
22,600
5,100
59,700
Fylde
800
8,100
8,300
1,600
45,800
Lancaster
3,400
6,200
20,400
2,500
53,700
Wyre
1,500
3,600
12,000
1,600
35,300

Central Lancashire
No.
12,100
37,300
66,100
8,300
213,300
%
5.7
17.5
31.0
3.9
100.0
Chorley
1,500
10,200
11,000
2,200
41,000
Preston
5,400
15,700
31,700
3,100
84,800
South Ribble
2,500
5,100
10,900
1,500
42,600
West Lancashire
2,800
6,300
12,500
1,500
44,900

Lancashire West
No.
19,700
61,400
129,300
19,100
407,700
%
4.8
15.1
31.7
4.7
100.0

East Lancashire
No.
8,300
25,300
53,700
10,200
202,500
%
4.1
12.5
26.5
5.1
100.0
Blackburn with Darwen
3,300
8,600
17,400
4,000
61,300
Burnley
1,600
4,500
9,900
1,900
34,600
Hyndburn
1,000
2,400
7,900
1,200
28,100
Pendle
700
3,400
7,800
1,300
32,000
Ribble Valley
700
2,100
6,500
900
24,100
Rossendale
900
4,100
4,300
1,000
22,500

Lancashire County
No.
22,800
71,900
143,000
20,200
489,200
%
4.7
14.7
29.2
4.1
100.0
Lancashire NUTS-2
No.
28,000
86,700
183,000
29,300
610,200
%
4.6
14.2
30.0
4.8
100.0

North West
No.
181,100
578,200
836,700
142,200
3,010,700
%
6.0
19,2
27.8
4.7
100.0
Great Britain
No.
1,549,700
5,590,900
7,090,800
1,391,500
26,320,600
%
5.9
21.2
26.9
5.3
100.0
Note * Disclosive data
Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry 2006
Figure 1 Employee Jobs by Broad Sector of Industry, 2006

Map showing the total number of employee jobs and the distribution among manufacturing, services and other for Lancashire's local authorities Source ONS - Annual Business Inquiry 2006 Employee Jobs

This page was compiled by Peter Kivell .

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