There are around 5,820 logistic sector workplaces in the region which comprise 4% of all workplaces in the region. Road freight transport companies make up 63% of the sector. The majority of the workplaces are small to medium sized enterprises with 85% of workplaces employing 1-10 people, yet 65% of the workforce is employed in a working environment with 50 or more people.

The logistics sector in the region is one of the largest in the UK. It directly employs 78,400 people, accounting for over 4% of the region’s workforce. When employees working within logistics but related to other sectors are included (for example, post workers, messengers and couriers), then logistics employs around 159,300 people, which represents 8% of all employment in the region.

The region’s logistics’ workforce profile follows:

• 39% are process plant and machine operatives and elementary staff
• 8% of the workforce are self-employed, compared with 14% for the region as a whole
• 8% of the workforce is employed part-time, compared with 27% for the region as a whole
• 19% are women
• 5% are from minority ethnic groups
• 18% of the workforce is 55 years and over, compared with 17% of all sectors in the region. This older age group currently dominates road freight (23%)
• 11% of employees hold an NVQ Level 4 or above, compared with 11% of employees in UK logistics
• 21% of employees in the sector hold below NVQ Level 2 qualifications and 17% hold no qualifications

Employers in the region report more vacancies than the English logistics sector and also have more problems with hard-to-fill vacancies – though skills shortages are lower. In particular:

• 23% of firms have at least one vacancy
• 12% have at least one vacancy that is hard-to-fill
• 5% have a skills shortage vacancy

The hardest to fill vacancies are those for machine operatives. Additionally, vacancies for sales and customer service staff, as well as customer service staff positions were also problematic.

Significant recruitment difficulties are attributed to apathy towards the sector – with a low number of applicants (29%), low number of applicants with the required attitude (29%) and lack of people with any interest in the work (28%) were the main reasons for hard-to-fill vacancies. Numeracy and literacy skills were identified as the skills that applicants for vacancies were lacking.

However, the past 12 months:

• 41% of employers in the region did not fund or arrange any staff training;
• 54% formally assessed staff training needs
• 41% do not have a business plan, training plan or a budget for expenditure
• 21% of employers providing off-the-job training had used a Further Education college
• ‘very few’ employers had any apprentices funded through the Learning and Skills Council

Increase in demand for management roles is predicted. Transport and machine operatives will remain the largest sub-group. There will be a continued increase in demand for administrative, clerical and secretarial positions.

The proportion of women working in the sector is expected to increase by 10% over the next 10 years.

Source: Skills for Logistics - East Midlands 2006