Official Statistics

Offender Employment Outcomes - Statistical Summary

Published 25 July 2024

Applies to England and Wales

1. Introduction

This summary presents the main findings from the most recent Offender Employment Outcomes publication.

The Probation Service is responsible for managing all offenders on a community sentence or licence following their release from prison in England and Wales.

There are 12 probation regions – 11 in England and one in Wales.

2. Employment at 6 Weeks Post Release from Custody

• In the year to March 2024, 19.3% of offenders were employed at 6 weeks post release from custody (excluding those who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown)
• This is an increase of 1.9 percentage points from 17.4% in the 2022/23 performance year
• However, this increase is smaller in comparison to the 2022/23 and 2021/22 performance years, which had seen a 4.4 and 3.4 percentage point increase respectively

Figure 1: Percentage of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody, by performance year, April 2019 to March 2024, England and Wales
(Source: Employment at 6 Weeks Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 2)

3. Employment at 6 Months Post Release from Custody

• In the year to March 2024, 31.1% of offenders were employed at 6 months post release from custody (excluding those who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown)
• This is an increase of 5.2 percentage points from 25.9% in the 2022/23 performance year
• Whilst this is a sizeable growth in the employment rate, the increase has been smaller compared to the rise seen in the 2022/23 performance year, which had an increase of 8.6 percentage points

Figure 2: Percentage of offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2024, England and Wales
(Source: Employment at 6 Months Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 2)

4. Employment at 6 Months Post Community Disposal

• In the year to March 2024, 46.4% of those sentenced to a community order were employed 6 months after starting their sentence (excluding those who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown)
• This is an increase of 1.9 percentage points from 44.5% in the 2022/23 performance year
• However, this increase is smaller in comparison to the 2022/23 and 2021/22 performance years, which had seen a 5.7 and a 2.1 percentage point increase respectively

Figure 3: Percentage of offenders in employment at 6 months post community disposal, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2024, England and Wales
(Source: Employment at 6 Months Post Community Disposal data tables; Table 2)

5. Further Insights

5.1 Outcomes by Region

High variation in employment rates is seen across regions for all measures.

Employment at 6 Weeks Post Release from Custody

• Of the 12 reported regions across England and Wales, 9 regions saw an increase in the proportion of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody, compared to the 2022/23 performance year
• The Wales probation region saw the largest improvement in performance with 22.9% of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody, an increase of 4.2 percentage points from 18.7% in the 2022/23 performance year
• The East Midlands probation region saw the largest fall in performance with 15.0% of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody, a decrease of 2.3 percentage points from 17.3% in the 2022/23 performance year

Figure 4: Percentage of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody, by region, April 2023 to March 2024 compared to April 2022 to March 2023
(Source: Employment at 6 Weeks Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 3)

Employment at 6 Months Post Release from Custody

• Of the 12 reported regions across England and Wales, 11 regions saw an increase in the proportion of offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody, compared to the 2022/23 performance year
• The London probation region saw the largest improvement in performance with 27.9% of offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody, an increase of 8.3 percentage points from 19.6% in the 2022/23 performance year
• The East Midlands was the only region with a fall in performance with 26.6% of offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody, a decrease of 2.8 percentage points from 29.4% in the 2022/23 performance year

Figure 5: Percentage of offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody, by region, April 2023 to March 2024 compared to April 2022 to March 2023
(Source: Employment at 6 Months Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 3)

Employment at 6 Months Post Community Disposal

• Of the 12 reported regions across England and Wales, 8 regions saw an increase in the proportion of offenders in employment 6 months after starting their community sentence, compared to the 2022/23 performance year
• The Greater Manchester probation region saw the largest improvement in performance with 50.4% of offenders in employment 6 months after starting their community sentence, an increase of 8.4 percentage points from 42.0% in the 2022/23 performance year
• The East Midlands probation region saw the largest fall in performance with 41.5% of offenders in employment 6 months after starting their community sentence, a decrease of 4.3 percentage points from 45.8% in the 2022/23 performance year

Figure 6: Percentage of offenders in employment 6 months post community disposal, by region, April 2023 to March 2024 compared to April 2022 to March 2023
(Source: Employment at 6 Months Post Community Disposal data tables; Table 3)

5.2 Outcomes by Sex

Males

• Employment outcomes at 6 months for those serving custodial sentences are lower than employment outcomes for those on community sentences for male offenders. However, the gap between these employment rates has been narrowing across the time series
• In the year to March 2021, there was a difference of 24.9 percentage points between offenders serving custodial sentences and offenders serving community sentences. This narrowed to 17.3 percentage points in the year to March 2024
• Although both measures have seen an increase in performance across the time series, larger increases have been seen for offenders on custodial sentences, which has risen by 17.4 percentage points, more than doubling from 14.6% to 32.0%
• In comparison, employment rates since the beginning of the time series for offenders serving a community sentence have increased by 9.8 percentage points, from 39.5% to 49.3%

Figure 7: Percentage of male offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody and 6 months post community disposal, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2024
(Source: Employment at 6 Months Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 4 and Employment at 6 Months Post Community Disposal data tables; Table 4)

Females

While lower employment rates are generally seen by females in comparison to males, there have also been large improvements in the employment rates for female offenders.

• Employment outcomes at 6 months for those serving custodial sentences are lower than employment outcomes for those on community sentences for female offenders. However, the gap between these employment rates has been narrowing across the time series
• In the year to March 2021, there was a difference of 16.7 percentage points between offenders serving custodial sentences and those serving community sentences. This narrowed to 14.2 percentage points in the year to March 2024
• Although both measures have seen an increase in performance across the time series, larger increases have been seen for offenders on custodial sentences, which has risen by 10.5 percentage points, more than doubling from 6.5% to 17.0%
• In comparison, employment rates since the beginning of the time series for offenders serving a community sentence have increased by 8.0 percentage points, from 23.2% to 31.2%

Figure 8: Percentage of female offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody and 6 months post community disposal, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2024
(Source: Employment at 6 Months Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 4 and Employment at 6 Months Post Community Disposal data tables; Table 4)

5.3 Outcomes by Sentence Length

• Consistent with findings from the 2022/23 performance year, 2023/24 data show that there is a relationship between custodial sentence length and positive employment outcomes
• Offenders serving longer custodial sentences have better employment outcomes both at 6 weeks, and 6 months post release. Conversely, offenders on shorter sentences are shown to have worse employment outcomes
• Similar findings between sentence length and outcomes have been seen in the 2024 Offender Accommodation Outcomes publication

Figure 9: Percentage of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody and 6 months post release from custody, by sentence length, April 2023 to March 2024
(Source: Employment at 6 Weeks Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 8 and Employment at 6 Months Post Release from Custody data tables; Table 8)

5.4 Other Characteristics

There are differing levels of employment outcomes between groups across the characteristics of age, ethnicity, and offence type.

• For age, higher employment rates are generally seen among those in the age categories of 21-24, 25-29 and 30-39
• For ethnicity, higher employment rates of offenders who have served a custodial sentence were generally seen among the ethnic groups of Asian or Asian British and Unknown
• Additionally, higher employment rates of offenders who have served a community sentence were generally seen among the ethnic groups of Asian or Asian British and Other Ethnic Group
• There is high variation of employment rates between different offence types committed

6. Further Information

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

• Offender Employment Outcomes – Statistical Guidance
• Offender Employment Outcomes – Data Tables

Enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:
E Stradling
Email: CrossCuttingPerformanceEnquiries@justice.gov.uk

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