Source: Working Futures 2004, page 211

Employment is the sector is dominated by postal and related services.

In the late 1990s the sector experienced a strong growth due to liberalisation of fixed-line telecommunication networks and the adoption of mobile telephony. This has come to an end as a result of:

• the roll-out of broadband being slower than expected (partly many firms are heavily indebted)
• mobile telephony companies, successful in bidding for the UK 3G licences, face uncertainty about the take-up of 3G services amongst their customers
• price controls for cross-network calling have been imposed

Source: Working Futures 2004

Source: Working Futures 2004, table 6.17.1

For more information on employment trends in the sector see:

There are 9,500 vacancies in the sector and 15% of establishments report vacancies, that is 2% of the total employment in the sector. Most vacancies are in sales and customer service occupations (29%), associate professional and technical occupations (15%) and administrative and secretarial occupations (15%).

There are 2,600 hard-to-fill vacancies in the sector.  6% of establishments report hard-to-fill vacancies which accounts for 1% of the employment.  Hard-to-fill vacancies were reported in sales and customer service occupations (26%), process, plant and machine operatives (23%) and elementary occupations (18%).

There are 1,500 skill-shortage vacancies and 3% of establishments report skill-shortage vacancies which accounts for 16% of all vacancies. 23% of establishments also report internal skill gaps accounting for 15% of employment. Most internal skill gaps were with managers and senior officials (31%), professional occupations (22%) and sales and customer service occupations (17%).

Source: SSDA Skills Matrix 2004

Output is expected to grow rapidly over the next decade. This, however, will show little or no impact on employment (“jobless” growth).  Part-time employment is not expected to increase in importance and self employment will remain insignificant.

Source: Working Futures 2004

For further information see Data and charts.

Skill shortages: A vacancy is regarded as a skill shortage if there are a low number of applicants with the required skills, applicants lack of work experience or applicants lack of qualifications.

Skill gaps: Employers do not regard their employees as having sufficient skills to meet business objectives.