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Economic Summary
The dashboard below brings together some of the main indicators detailing the economy in County Durham and provides a summary of the economic factsheets on this site with additional supporting information publicly available.
The documents we publish on this page are either legally required to be made available for inspection, for information and analysis purposes or may have been supplied by the public and so in some cases may not be fully accessible. If, for any reason, you cannot access the documents and need an alternative format, please email ina@durham.gov.uk.
Linking Economic Data: Advice
Drawing links and conclusions between the datasets detailed below must be carried out with caution as they are derived using different methodologies, cover different populations, and cover different time periods.
- Business enterprises are derived from the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) (via NOMIS) which records the number of enterprises that were live at a reference date in March. Latest data is for 2023.
- Job numbers are derived from a sample survey of businesses extracted from the IDBR above (via NOMIS). Latest data is for 2022. As these estimates use an extract from the IDBR they can be linked.
- Employment statistics are estimates from the Annual Population Survey (APS) (via NOMIS). This survey is carried out quarterly with figures released on a rolling year average. The sample size for Great Britain is around 223,000 households and within County Durham it is 1,200 to 1,300 households. The latest period covers January 2023 to December 2023.
- Gross Value Added (GVA), are estimates of the increase in the value of the economy due to the production of goods and services. Latest data is for 2021.
- Gross Domestic household Income (GDHI) are estimates of amount of money that all of the individuals in the household sector have available for spending or saving after income distribution measures (for example, taxes, social contributions and benefits) have taken effect. Latest data is for 2021.
All of the above indicators are produce by or on behalf of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
For example, linking changes in employment levels and GDHI cannot be made directly due to the differing methodologies and time periods they cover. Inferences can be made by comparing similar time periods, GDHI 2017 with employment rates for Jan 2017 – Dec 2017, for example and looking back over the available time-series. However, this can only be done with caveats explaining the differences in the methodologies used.
Zero Hour Contracts
Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) Labour Force Survey
Current Estimate: 8,000 jobs (December 2022)
Data is only available down to the regional level. The latest release is extracted from the ONS Labour Force Survey .
Key Messages:
- It is estimated that around 39,400 people (aged 16 and over) in employment were on zero-hour contracts in the North East representing 3.3% of all people in employment, (up from 23,400/2% in 2013),
- If we assume a similar percentage are on these contracts across the county and use the latest Annual Population Survey results, an estimate of 8,000 people in the county are on zero-hour contracts. However, as this estimate assumes an even distribution across NE authorities and uses a sample survey for the estimate of people in employment this figure must be used with caution.
Factsheet: Jobs Factsheet
Current: 188,900 jobs (2023)
- Between 2016 and 2023 the total number of jobs in the county increased by 9% (17,100 more jobs). This increase was higher than the regional increase (5.3%) and national increase (7.3%),
- The number of public sector jobs has increased since 2016 by 13.8%, rising from 34,100 to 38,800, while private sector jobs increased by 9% over the same period,
- Between 2016 and 2023 the total number of people in jobs (employees) in the county increased by 9.6% (16,000 more jobs). This increase was higher than the regional increase (6.3%) and national increase (7.9%),
- The number of people in jobs (employees) in the public sector has increased since 2016 by 13.8%, rising from 34,000 to just under 38,800, while private sector jobs increased by 8.5% over the same period,
Demand for Jobs
In 2019 there were over 25,006 jobs postings in County Durham, of which 3,500 were in Health Care and Nursing professions, or 14% of all postings. This is the highest proportion out of all the groupings in the dataset, with Education & training coming second with just over 2,700 posts representing 11% of all postings. The following table details these posting by group.
Group | Postings | % of total |
---|---|---|
Total | 25,006 | |
Health Care including Nursing | 3,500 | 14.00% |
Education and Training | 2,740 | 10.96% |
Business Management and Operations | 1,884 | 7.53% |
Engineering | 1,675 | 6.70% |
Sales | 1,466 | 5.86% |
Manufacturing and Production | 1,370 | 5.48% |
Clerical and Administrative | 1,257 | 5.03% |
Hospitality, Food, and Tourism | 1,281 | 5.12% |
Information Technology | 1,232 | 4.93% |
Community and Social Services | 1,120 | 4.48% |
Construction, Extraction, and Architecture | 1,002 | 4.01% |
Finance | 914 | 3.66% |
Maintenance, Repair, and Installation | 724 | 2.90% |
Transportation | 576 | 2.30% |
Customer and Client Support | 573 | 2.29% |
Law, Compliance, and Public Safety | 510 | 2.04% |
Human Resources | 448 | 1.79% |
Planning and Analysis | 424 | 1.70% |
Science and Research | 368 | 1.47% |
Marketing and Public Relations | 310 | 1.24% |
Design, Media, and Writing | 219 | 0.88% |
Other | 1,413 | 5.65% |
Source: Labour Insight Jobs (Burning Glass Technologies) |
Quality of Jobs
Source: Annual Population Survey (via NOMIS)
As highlighted above, the County’s employment rate has increased substantially and is now close to the national average. However, this does not represent the quality of jobs in the County.
Since 2004 the percentage of people employed in County Durham in higher level occupations (such as directors, managers, professionals and semi-professionals), has slowly increased from 10.7% to 13.1% but this proportion is still lower than national levels which increased from 13.4% to 16.7% over the same period. In addition, the gap between the county and England has remained the same at around an average of 2.4 percentage points.
Between 2004 and 2021 the percentage of people in employment in the county with higher level qualifications (NVQ4+) increased from 27.3% to 36.9%, however, as the chart below shows, the national rate has also increased (from 29.9% to 49.1%), and the gap between the county and England has also increased from 2.7 percentage points to 12.2 points.
In contrast, at other qualifications levels, (for example GCSEs, A-levels, and those with no qualifications), the County has converged with the national averages. The only part of the County that has a higher proportion of residents with degree level qualifications than the national average is the Durham City area – all other parts of the County are below the national rate. The implications are that the County remains vulnerable to economic downturns, automation, and the relocation of higher quality jobs elsewhere.
Looking at the trend over time the county has remained behind the national levels for people employed in higher-level occupations and with higher-level qualifications and the gaps are widening.
Jobs Below the Living Wage (2022)
Following an ad-hoc request to the Office for national Statistics on estimates of people earning less than the Living Wage Foundation hourly rates (£9.90 in 2022 outside London), a dataset was published on the ONS website. Note: That the data included may not be suitable for all analytical purposes as they were produced in response to an ad hoc request and it is possible that a revision could occur to the data.
These estimates suggest that around one in six employees in County Durham were earning less than the current living wage foundation rate of £9.90, (16.6%/30,000 employees). Across England the proportion was 12.5%.
Further information on wages is available in the infographic on the Average Earnings (Wages) page.
Research & Development Investment
Source: Office for National Statistics (ONS) –Estimates of R&D Investment.
The R&D investment data shows that England, NE have the highest investment coming from businesses followed by higher education, whereas County Durham has the majority coming from Higher education i.e Durham University, with business investment the next highest.
This demonstrates a low business R&D investment compared to national figures with the overall being artificially supported by the universities.
County Durham also has low government R&D investment and high Private Non-profit R&D investment as a proportion of the total local investment.
Investment per capita shows County Durham is extremely low at £185.6 compared to £554.5 in England, possibly due to the cheap R&D costs in universities and a higher proportion of that in the county. The following tables summarises this dataset.