The Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) is the Sector Skills Council for the financial services sector.  The FSSC's remit currently includes the following major activities:

• Banking and finance
• Insurance
• Auxiliary financial services

More than 1.2 million staff in 34,000 workplaces constitute the UK’s financial services sector, from online car insurers to retail banking giants, and from self-employed independent financial advisors (IFAs) to global investment banks. Banking accounts for 61% of employment, while insurance accounts for only 7% and auxiliary services 32% of the workforce.

More than 87,000 jobs have been affected by restructuring since 2002, most of them in retail banking and insurance.  Distribution and administration, including the offshoring of customer services, IT and HR, are the focal areas for restructuring job losses.

By 2010, direct employment is expected to grow by just short of 1% annually.  With around 10,100 new jobs created per year, the sector will need 53,000 to 65,000 new entrants annually in order to fill these roles and replace retiring staff.

Employment and output in the sector are concentrated in London and the South East.  The most important financial centres in the UK are the City of London (including Canary Wharf and the City Fringe), Edinburgh and Glasgow.

20% of the financial services workforce are currently in administrative or secretarial roles, including: counter clerks; pensions and insurance clerks; and account clerks.  Managerial roles, including proprietors in private companies and the self-employed, account for more than a quarter of the workforce, over 310,000 jobs.

The sector has higher levels of attainment at levels 3 and above than the wider UK economy, and employs only a very small number of staff holding level 2 or lower qualifications.  A small, but rising, proportion of the workforce has postgraduate qualifications.  A university degree is increasingly becoming the minimum requirement for entry-level roles in much of the sector.

Employment in financial services is evenly split between men and women.  8.4% of the workforce is from a black or ethnic minority group (BME).  26% of all staff are over 45 years of age.

Research on the section is focused on: workforce employment; offshoring and outsourcing; global markets; and future trends and drivers.