There are approximately 44,000 passenger transport employees in the Yorkshire and Humber region.  There has been an 8% growth in passenger transports jobs over the last few years.  There are only a few employees in the aviation industry.

The majority of the workforce are employed in the bus and coach industry.  The passenger transport sector plays an important role in supporting tourism, allowing the workforce to access the workplace and improving social inclusion through community transport operations.

13% of the sector’s workforce in the region is female.  18% of the bus and coach industry workforce is female.  17% of the workforce are from ethnic minority groups.  Yorkshire and the Humber has the highest percentage of Pakistani and Bangladeshi (14%) workforce of all regions. 

Key statistics:

• 49% of the workforce have an NVQ Level 2
• 18% have no qualifications
• 34% of companies have employment vacancies, of which 69% are hard-to-fill
• 1.7% of Jobcentre Plus vacancies are in the sector, which is high compared to other regions
• 7% of companies report retention difficulties
• 21% report skills gaps
• skills gaps are particularly in clerical occupations
• skills gaps are reported for customer handling, problem solving and oral communication skills
• 23% of companies provide training for their employees
• 32% of companies found that there was a lack of funding available for training
• 10% found that there was a lack of suitable courses in the local area

Priorities for the region include:

• increase in flights at Humberside airport
• upgrade some road to relive congestion
• improve through-ticketing and multi-operator ticketing
• improve bus links to deprived urban areas

For more detailed passenger transport priorities in the region go to the GoSkills Yorkshire and the Humber 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: