The East of England has around 40,000 passenger transport employees working in over 2,000 companies.  Compared to other English regions this figure is low.  The regional workforce is 3% of England’s passenger transport sector workforce. 

19% of the workforce in the East of England is female, of which high proportions are employed in the hackney and private hire industry and the bus and coach workforce.  Only 3% of the workforce are from ethnic minority groups.

The largest number of employees are in the bus and coach industry, followed by the aviation industry.  Within the region, there is Stansted airport, the third busiest airport in the UK, London Luton airport and Norwich International airport.  The number of passengers at Southend airport is expected to increase significantly to 2015.

Key statistics:

• 18% of workforce work part-time, compared to a national average of 13%
• 49% of the workforce have an NVQ Level 2, 16% have no qualifications
• 13% growth in jobs over the last few years
• 29% of companies have employment vacancies, of which 52% are hard-to-fill
• 2.9% of Jobcentre Plus vacancies are in the sector, which is high compared to other regions
• 1 in 20 companies report retention difficulties
• highest retention problems are in the bus and coach industry
• 20% report skills gaps, compared to 24% in the region as a whole
• skills gaps are reported for oral communication, problem solving and customer handling skills
• 26% of companies provide training for their employees
• 18% found that there was a lack of funding available for training
• 14% found that there was a lack of suitable courses in the local area

Priorities for the region include:

• decreasing congestion
• improving bus infrastructure
• safety improvements
• relief roads and links to strategic routes
• airport extensions and improvements

For more detailed passenger transport priorities in the region go to the GoSkills East of England 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: