DCMS Sector Economic Estimates: Employment Apr 2021 – Mar 2022
Estimate of the number of filled jobs in the DCMS Sectors for the period April 2021 to March 2022 and re-weighted estimates for the 2021 calendar year.
Documents
Details
Revision note
December 2022
We removed estimates for employment broken down by highest level of education, as we have since discovered an error. The underlying data from January 2022 uses a new education variable, meaning it is not possible to accurately calculate aggregate estimates that straddle the 2021 and 2022 calendar years.
Autumn 2024:
DCMS and Digital Sector Economic Estimates: Employment, April 2021 to March 2022 data tables have been revised and re-published due to the identification of a minor error.
Revised estimates for the digital sector are available here: Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors and digital sector, April 2022 to March 2023.
Revised estimates for DCMS sectors are available here: Economic Estimates: Employment in DCMS sectors, April 2023 to March 2024.
Last update: 29th September 2022
Next update: December 2022
Geographic Coverage: UK
Headline findings
In the period April 2021 to March 2022, there were approximately 4,328,000 total filled jobs in the DCMS Sectors (excluding Tourism) - representing 12.9% of all UK filled jobs, up from 11.1% in 2011 and 12.0% in 2019 (pre-pandemic). This reflects that, for DCMS Sectors (excluding Tourism), the number of filled jobs have grown faster than the UK overall since 2011 (29.1% DCMS vs 11.0% UK) and pre-pandemic (7.8% DCMS vs -0.3% UK).
In percentage terms, within the DCMS sectors, the Digital sector has seen the largest employment growth since 2019 (pre-pandemic). Over the same period, of the DCMS sectors, only the Gambling sector and Sport sector have seen declines in employment. Please note, there is substantial overlap between the DCMS sectors.
Although there is wide variation between sectors in terms of demographic breakdowns, overall the proportion of filled jobs held by women was lower in the DCMS Sectors (excluding Tourism) (43.7%) than the UK overall (48.0%). DCMS Sectors (excluding Tourism) have a similar share of jobs filled by people from ethnic minority groups (excluding white minorities) or by people with disabilities compared to the UK workforce overall.
Digital Sector workforce analysis
In parallel to this set of employment estimates, we have published some experimental statistics on factors associated with joining or leaving the Digital sector workforce. This analysis uses data from the ONS longitudinal survey, from 2012 to 2019, to assess changes in employment status over a 12 month period relative to a baseline population. It shows that:
- Those joining the digital sector were less likely to be female, or (since 2016) to have a disability, and more likely to have a degree or live in London or the South East.
- Women, people without a degree level qualification, and (since 2016) people from non-Asian ethnic minority groups were disproportionately likely to leave the digital sector.
- The largest factors affecting entry or exit were having a degree level qualification, gender, and if female, the presence of a young child in the household.
The factors examined did not explain the majority of movements into and out of the digital sector.
About this release
The Economic Estimates are National Statistics used to provide an estimate of employment (number of filled jobs) in the DCMS Sectors. This release gives estimates for the period April 2021 to March 2022 and re-weighted estimates for January 2021 to December 2021. It also includes experimental statistics on factors associated with joining or leaving the Digital sector workforce; and experimental statistics on joining and leaving the DCMS Sectors. The findings are calculated based on the ONS Annual Population Survey (APS).
Content
These statistics cover the contributions of the following DCMS sectors to the UK economy;
- Civil Society
- Creative Industries
- Cultural Sector
- Digital Sector
- Gambling
- Sport
- Telecoms
A definition for each sector is available in the accompanying technical document along with details of methods and data limitations.
The UK Statistics Authority
This release is published in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics (2018) produced by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA). The UKSA has the overall objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good. It monitors and reports on all official statistics, and promotes good practice in this area.
Pre-release access
The accompanying pre-release access document lists ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours.
Contact
Responsible analyst: George Ashford
For any queries or feedback, please contact evidence@dcms.gov.uk.
Updates to this page
Published 29 September 2022Last updated 8 November 2024 + show all updates
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Updated revision note and attachments to link to latest DCMS and Digital tables.
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Employment tables for DCMS sectors have been removed due to an error. Replaced digital sector data tables, following a minor revision.
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Amended to reflect an issue with the Highest level of education variable in the April 2021 to March 2022 sheet.
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Updated to add DCMS Sector Economic Estimates: Employment, Technical and Quality Assurance Report
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First published.