Employment in North Lancashire

Introduction

North Lancashire, with an estimated resident mid-2001 population of 455,600 includes the three County Districts of Fylde, Lancaster and Wyre together with Blackpool Unitary Authority. Though sharing in the general economic character of the sub-region, Lancaster remains slightly set apart from the other three districts because of its relative geographical isolation and weaker work trip linkages.

Long-term Employment Patterns

In contrast to many other parts of the County, the North Lancashire sub-region has historically been perceived as more dependent on services than on production industries, even though the latter has, and continues to under-pin a not insignificant slice of the local economy. Services accounted for more than half of the insured workforce as early as the 1930s and with the exception of an early post-war pause whilst the economy adjusted to civilian production, have seen virtually un-interrupted growth right through to the present day (Figure 1).

Note Data for 1929-1939 and 1939-43 is interpolated.

Whilst manufacturing industry has played a lesser role in the sub-region than elsewhere in Lancashire, it nonetheless saw modest growth over post-war years up to about 1970, at which time it accounted for nearly a third of all jobs in the sub-region. Even though the number of industrial jobs fell back considerably post-1980, the relative scale of this process has been far less marked than elsewhere in the County. The sub-region has also had a sizable presence amongst 'other' industries, which include agriculture and fishing, quarrying and energy industries and construction.

Recent Employment Trends

The total employee job number in 2002, at nearly 184,700 was 8,200 or 4.6% higher than in 1998. This was only marginally lower than the growth rate experienced nationally (Table 1). The sub-region suffered a fall in its manufacturing head count and in its financial sector (especially insurance) whilst retail job numbers also fell. However, there was exceptionally strong growth in construction activity as well as across a number of key service sectors. The importance of services in North Lancashire is indicated by the fact that 78% of local employee jobs in 2002 were to be found in service activities of one sort or another, rising to a share of 88% in Blackpool.

Within the sub-region growth was apparently strongest in Fylde and Lancaster, but weakest in Wyre (Table 2).

Industrial Structure Characteristics

With the principal exceptions of Transport & Communication and the Financial and Other Business Activities, the other major service industry groups have an average or above-average representation in North Lancashire compared with the national employee jobs profile. Top of the list is Wholesale & Retail Distribution, providing 29,000 jobs or nearly one in six of all employee jobs, more than manufacturing which occupied second place providing 28,000 jobs. The sub-region is also characterised with a strong presence in "public service" jobs. Health & Social Work, Education and Public Administration all have local employment shares above the national average, a position that in part reflects the strong presence of several large central government agencies such as the Dept of Works & Pensions and the Bonds and Stocks Office.

The holiday and leisure industries, which approximately define the "tourism industry", have long been an important generator of jobs within the sub-region and in many respects play a large role in defining the character of much of the area. Whilst Blackpool, a major national resort, is without question the main centre of such activities, tourism also continues to play a key economic role elsewhere in the sub-region – in particular the sea-side resorts of Lytham and St. Annes and the Morecambe and Lancaster areas with lesser concentrations elsewhere. In total, the industry (comprising Hotels & Restaurants, Travel Agents and Recreational, Cultural & Sporting activities taken together) provided some 21,400 employee jobs in the sub-region in 2002. This represented 11.6% of all local jobs (and 42% of the Lancashire tourism total) of which close to half were in Blackpool itself. However, despite the industry's continuing local importance new jobs growth over recent years has fallen well below national average growth rates in the sector. Of course, it should be recognised that the tourism industry also supports a large number of people who work on their own account and who do not appear in the employee estimates, as well as many casual/seasonal workers who probably escape official statistics altogether.

In terms of jobs growth, the most buoyant sector over the 1998-2002 period was Real Estate & Business Activities. This added a further 4,800 new jobs, an increase of 39%, though the pace of increase was clearly beginning to ease over the latter part of the period. Gains were spread across most sub-sectors but were especially notable in computer and related activities (particularly in software consultancy & supply), labour recruitment, etc activities, accountancy, business and management consultancy and real estate services. Some of the new job opportunities created in these services will have represented net additions to the local workforce though undoubtedly many were effectively a transfer from manufacturing resulting from increased emphasis on contracting-out services previous provided in-house.

Elsewhere, sizable gains were recorded between 1988-2002 in Education (+4,500 jobs). All sub-sectors but they were greatest in primary and secondary education, presumably reflecting increased government expenditure in these areas. The large size of the Health & Social Work sector in the area to a degree probably reflects the particular demographic characteristics of the sub-region itself: it has long been a popular destination for many retired migrants. However, whilst general human health and social work activities without accommodation continued to expand, there was a significant fall in social work with accommodation. This presumably reflected in part the changing operating environment for many private sector care providers.

The other large provider of "public sector" jobs in the sub-region, Public Administration & Defence, underwent a small contraction of jobs. This was in sharp contrast to its earlier rapid development over the late 1980s and early 1990s. At this time it was a highly significant source of new local employment opportunity linked to the continued dispersal of civil service jobs to the Fylde Coast in particular, notably of central government compulsory social security activities. The more recent reduction probably stems from on-going computerisation of service delivery activities and site rationalisation.

Viewed in rather greater detail, there were a number of individual service industry sectors that made a particularly notable contribution to local jobs growth in North Lancashire 1998-2002. Ranked in order of net new jobs created, these included the following:

Manufacturing industry in the sub-region accounts for 28,200 or 15.3% of local employee jobs, a level which remains in excess of the national average of 13.4%. About 56% of these jobs are based in Fylde District where manufacturing makes up a substantial 40% of all local jobs (compared with 8.2% in Blackpool and just 7.8% in Lancaster, for example). Other Transport Equipment (predominately aerospace, centred on BAE Systems' military aircraft Air Systems at Warton – the County's largest industrial employer), is by far the most important single sector. The nature of BAE Systems as a prime contractor and systems integrator makes the company a key driver for many other industrial and commercial services throughout the County and beyond. Aside from this major activity, other major manufacturing employing sectors in North Lancashire include Food & Beverages (3,100 jobs), Paper, Printing & Publishing (2,300), Coke, Petrol & Nuclear Fuels (2,100) and Basic Metals & metal Goods (1,800). Employee numbers in aerospace remained virtually steady 1998-2002 but most other manufacturing industries shed jobs over the period, most notably Food & Beverages (-1,400 jobs), Paper, Printing & Publishing (-800), Chemicals (-500) and Textiles & Textile Products (-500).

Elsewhere within the production industries, job trends over the period were more encouraging. There were small net gains in both the mining and quarrying and energy (electricity generation) sectors and as across other parts of Lancashire there was a very substantial and rapid rise in construction industry activity. The later industry created nearly 4,100 new jobs 1998-2002 (+74%) in an unprecedented expansion. These jobs were spread over all areas of building activity from general construction and civil engineering works through virtually all the building installation and completion trades.

The introduction of the new Annual Business Inquiry and the re-scaling of earlier years' estimates back to 1995 introduced a major discontinuity into the long-term data series, apparently adding between 6-7,000 employees across North Lancashire not previously identified in the Census of Employment/Annual Employment Survey. The more recent estimates accord more closely with results from the national Labour Force Surveys.