The East Midlands has around 30,000 passenger transport employees, which is the second smallest workforce.  There are 1,200 companies in the sector.  The regional workforce is 5% of England’s passenger transport sector workforce.  The smallest transport planners workforce is in the region.  There has been 16% growth in the sector as a whole over the last decade.

The East Midlands has a good transport network through rail, air and road.  East Midlands Airport is the second largest airport in the Midlands and employs 6,500 staff.  It has grown over the last few years and is now the UK’s largest freight only airport.

22% of the workforce in the region is female.  23% of the bus and coach workforce is female.  The largest increase in the female workforce has been in the hackney and private hire industry.  The average age of the workforce is 42.8 years.

Key statistics:

• 17% of workforce work part-time, compared to a national average of 13%
• 47% of the workforce have an NVQ Level 2, 13% have no qualifications
• 13% growth in jobs over the last few years
• 28% of companies have employment vacancies, of which 55% are hard-to-fill
• 2.8% of Jobcentre Plus vacancies are in the sector, which is high compared to other regions
• 1 in 10 companies report retention difficulties
• 14% report skills gaps
• skills gaps are reported for customer handling, oral communication, general IT and team working skills
• 29% of companies provide training for their employees
• 17% of companies found that there was a lack of funding available for training
• 12% found that there was a lack of suitable courses in the local area

Priorities for the region include:

• airport extensions and improvements
• integrated public transport network
• decreasing congestion
• building a light rail service

For more detailed passenger transport priorities in the region go to the GoSkills East Midlands Regional fact sheet (2006).

Source:  GoSkills regional fact sheet 2006, GoSkills Skills Needs Assessment (stage 1) 2006a and GoSkills Priority issues for passenger transport sector (SSA III) 2007

For more regional data see: