Wales blue collar jobs |
Key points
- While the total number of jobs has been rising, the number of jobs in manufacturing, construction and other production industries has been falling.
- Whilst the increase in total jobs combined with the fall in manufacturing, construction and other production jobs has occurred throughout the UK, the scale of change has been greater in Wales.
- Four in ten full-time male workers are in production industries, compared to around one in ten full-time female workers and part-time part-time workers.
- Manufacturing, construction and other production industries are the areas which are dominated by full-time male workers.
- There are two parts of Wales where a high proportion of residents work in manufacturing industry. Almost all of the small local areas within the six local authorities in the Valleys – from Neath Port Talbot in the west, to Torfaen in the east – are ones in which at least a fifth of those with jobs work in manufacturing. Many of these – chiefly in Blaenau Gwent as well as parts of Caerphilly, Bridgend (which is not counted here as part of the Valleys), Neath Port Talbot and Rhondda, Cynon, Taff – have more than a quarter working in manufacturing.
- The other part of Wales with a high dependence on manufacturing jobs is the North East – Wrexham and Flintshire. As with the Valleys, most small local areas here have more than a fifth of those with jobs working manufacturing while some, especially around Wrexham itself and Flint, have more than a quarter working in that sector.
- Apart from the Valleys and the North East, there are few pockets of high dependence. These include around Newtown (Powys), Llanelli and Ammanford (Carmarthenshire), Pembroke, and Holyhead (Isle of Anglesey).
- Notable for the complete absence of high dependence on manufacturing are Cardiff and (with some exceptions) Swansea. This does not mean that these areas do not have residents who work in manufacturing but rather that those who do form a relatively small proportion of the people with jobs living in the area.
Graph 1: Over time
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Graph 2: Compared to the United Kingdom
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Graph 3: By gender
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Graph 4: By industry
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Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows total number of jobs in the first quarter of each year, with the data broken down into four overall sectors, namely: manufacturing, construction and other production industries (Standard Industrial Classification or SIC 2003 codes A-F); wholesale, retail, hotels and restaurants (SIC 2003 codes G-H); finance and other business activities (SIC 2003 codes I-K); and public sector and other community services (SIC 2003 codes L-Q).
The second graph shows, for each region in the United Kingdom and each sector, the change in jobs between 1998 and 2008. These changes are shown as a proportion of the total jobs in each region in 1998.
For both first and second graphs, the data includes both employed and self-employed jobs. For employment: the data source is Labour Market Statistics plus, for the second graph, DETI (Northern Ireland). For self-employment, the data source is the Labour Force Survey. All the data relates to the location of the jobs themselves rather than to where the people doing these jobs live.
The third graph shows the proportion of workers that are in each of the four sectors for each of full-time male workers, full-time female workers and part-time workers (both sexes combined).
The fourth graph shows how the total number of jobs in each sector is divided between full-time male workers, full-time female workers and part-time workers (both sexes combined).
For both third and fourth graphs, the data includes both employed and self-employed workers and relates to the United Kingdom. The data source is the Labour Force Survey and the data is the average for the latest three years. Note that these two graphs are counts of workers rather than the counts of jobs in the first two graphs. For full-time workers, these two counts are similar but, for part-time workers, they are somewhat different as two part-time workers can share the same job and one part-time worker might have more than one job. The general pattern in both graphs would, however have been similar if job counts had been used.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: medium. Labour Market Statistics are an authoritative source but are subject to substantial revisions from time to time.