Business Register and Employment Survey: 2017

Main points

• In 2017 there were 1.241 million employee jobs in Wales, 1.1% lower than the figure of 1.256 million in 2016 and 13.4% higher than the figure of 1.095 million in 1999. For the UK there was a 1.2% increase between 2016 and 2017. Between 1999 and 2017 employee jobs in Great Britain increased by 15.4% [UK data are not available prior to 2008].
• There were increases in 10 of the 12 UK countries and English regions between 2016 and 2017, with the West Midlands having the largest percentage increase (up 2.9%). Wales and the South East had the only decrease (down 1.1%).
• All of the eleven GB regions and countries had increases between 1999 and 2017, with London and the East of England having the largest percentage increases (up 24.0% and 23.2%, respectively). Wales had the sixth largest percentage increase whilst the North East had the lowest increase over this period (up 6.0%).
• The change in Wales between 2016 and 2017 was spread across a number of industry sectors, with the largest absolute increase in the Information and Communications  sector (up 23,000) followed by the Professional, Scientific & Technical  sector (up 11,200). The largest fall was in the Accommodation and Foods sector (down 18,500).
• In 2017, the health sector was the largest in Wales, accounting for 16.0% of all employee jobs, followed by 11.1% in the manufacturing sector, 10.1% in the retail sector and 9.8% in the education sector.
• In 2017 there were 296,100 public sector employee jobs and 945,100 private sector employee jobs in Wales. The share of these jobs was 23.9% public and 76.1% private (UK 17.5% public and 82.5% private). Please note that these estimates of public sector employee jobs differ to those of the official public sector employment estimates. The official estimates should be regarded as the definitive public sector estimates for the English regions and UK countries.