There are approximately 95,000 passenger transport employees in the South East working in over 3,000 companies.  The South East has the second highest number of employees compared to other English regions.  The regional workforce is 21% of England’s passenger transport sector workforce.  The South East has the highest concentration of workers and accounts for 16% of all the sector’s employees.

The region is home to Gatwick and Southampton airport, plus Heathrow airport is on the regional boundary.  65% of the aviation industry workforce is based in the South East and London.  The South East contains 22% of the England motorway network and 14% of the England’s 'A' road network.  There are 3,000 transport planners in the region, which is one of the main bases of this workforce alongside London. 

22% of the workforce in the region are female.  17% of the bus and coach industry are female.  12% of the workforce are from ethnic minority groups.  35% of the aviation industry are under 34 years of age.

Key statistics:

• 19% growth in jobs over the last few years
• above average number of companies employ 10 or fewer
• 56% (the highest proportion) of the workforce have an NVQ Level 2 or higher
• 9% have no qualifications
• 22% of companies have employment vacancies, of which 56% are hard-to-fill
• 2.4% of Jobcentre Plus vacancies are in the sector, which is high compared to other regions
• 6% of companies report retention difficulties
• 18% report skills gaps
• skills gaps are reported for customer handling, oral communication and team working skills
• 32% of companies provide training for their employees
• 23% of companies found that there was a lack of funding available for training
• 11% found that there was a lack of suitable courses in the local area

Priorities for the region include:

• introduction of new freight service
• create demand responsive transport
• improve bus services
• develop rapid transport systems in large urban areas
• widening of the M25 and improvements to the road network
• development of Gatwick and Southampton airport
• maintain and enhance regional ports

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