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Employment by industry (2021 Census)

The industry sectors in which North East workers are employed and how these compare for different areas and have changed since 2011

Census 2021
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Industry groups

In March 2021, among 15 broad industry groups, North East residents were most likely to be employed in health (including care) or retail (including wholesale). More than three in ten workers were in these two sectors.

Among other sectors, between 8% and 10% of North East workers worked in each of education; manufacturing; public administration; and construction.

Compared to England excluding London, the North East had higher proportions of workers in health; public administration; manufacturing; hospitality; and agriculture and utilities.

Within the North East, in 2021, Newcastle had the highest percentages of residents employed in health and in education. Sunderland had the highest percentages in retail and in manufacturing, North Tyneside had the highest percentage in public administration and County Durham had the highest percentage in construction.

Detailed industries

The initial census release provided statistics for almost 90 industries. However, some of the largest broad sectors such as health, education, public administration and construction had little or no breakdown into smaller industries. At the other extreme, statistics were published for 24 different manufacturing industries.

Of North East workers in specific areas of manufacturing in 2021, the largest numbers were employed in the manufacture of motor vehicles; food products; fabricated metal products (exc machinery); and pharmaceutical products. Many were employed in "other manufacturing" which includes a disparate range of products not classified elsewhere. These include jewellery, sports goods, musical instruments, games, toys and medical instruments. 

Detailed service industry data shows that, in the North East, retail was a much larger employer than wholesale and that food and beverage service was a much larger employer than accommodation.

Within professional and technical service industries, the largest numbers of North East workers were in computing, legal, real estate, finance or architectural activities.  Among other service activities, the largest numbers were involved in servicing building and landscape, including cleaning, or in "other personal services" such as hairdressing, dry-cleaning, physical well-being and funerals.

The industries in which the North East can be said to have a specialism are those where the area's percentage of employment in England excluding London is highest.

The 25 industries where this percentage is highest include 10 types of manufacture, headed by motor vehicles, electrical equipment and pharmaceutical products. The 25 also include industries relating to energy, water, forestry and fishing. Health, social work, public administration, telecommunications and food and beverage services are also included. 

Change since 2011

Employment of North East residents in 2021 was 19,400 lower than ten years earlier. However, employment in health increased by more than 15,000 during that period, with other, smaller, rises in information and communication; administrative services; construction; and real estate.  The largest decreases were in manufacturing; retail; and accommodation and food services.

The largest percentage increase in North East employment was in information and communication (+21%), where the increase was similar to that of England excluding London. For all other industry groups, North East percentage increases were lower than national equivalents and decreases were larger.

Further information

The industry variable in the census classifies people aged 16 plus who were in employment between 15 March and 21 March 2021 by the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code that represented their industry or business at that time. The SIC code is based on information provided by the respondent. 

The initial census release is residence-based, providing information that is not available at such detail from other surveys. The most detailed annual industry sector data is workplace-based but does not include self-employed people. It is included on a separate Evidence Hub employment by sector page.

Future releases will provide information about the characteristics of workers in different industry groups. In particular, there will be age breakdowns and details of differences in full- and part- time working. There will also be industry data based on the workplace rather than the residence of the worker.

Mapping employment by industry

The ONS interactive census map shown below is embedded in this and other Evidence Hub pages. It allows users to view geographical patterns in census datasets interactively. 

We have set up the map to show the percentage of adults in each local authority area employed in the human health activities sector in 2021. However, the industry being mapped can be changed using the controls to the left of the map. In addition, the zoom function can be used to view patterns for small areas for each variable.

For more information about this mapping tool, visit the ONS website.