Herts Ahead

Stevenage 2010

Population and their occupations

The population of Stevenage is 80,000 – 50,100 people are of working age and 42,700 are in employment including self employment. The number of young people (16 – 18) not in education, employment or training at the moment is 7.0% (May 2010), the latest unemployment rate is 6.7% (16+) with 4.4% claiming JSA or NI credits (16 – 59/64 May 2010). There are 5.9 Job Seekers’ Allowance claimants to every unfilled Job Centre Plus vacancy (June 2010) in Stevenage (4.7 for Great Britain).

Employee jobs by Industry in Stevenage

Employee jobs excludes self-employed, government-supported trainees and HM Forces

Qualifications and earnings held by local residents in Stevenage

Hertfordshire has a highly qualified workforce, with 74.1% of year 11 students achieving level 2 qualifications at 16. However, 66.6% of the residents in Stevenage aged 19 – 59/64 have at least a level 2 qualification and this figure continues to increase as student performance improves.  Job seekers are competing with other well qualified applicants. 21.7% of Stevenage residents aged 19 – 59/64 have a level 4 (Degree) qualification.

The median full time gross weekly wage of Stevenage residents in 2009 was £479.50. The national trend for gender differences in earnings occurs in Hertfordshire with men earning more than women. Young people looking for their first job can expect to receive between £132 and £192 a week. Apprenticeships minimum pay is currently £95 a week.

Employment in Stevenage

The main business parks and industrial estates include: Gunnels Wood Business Area, Meadway Technology Park and Pin Green Business Estate.

Stevenage Enterprise Hub (Hertfordshire Business Incubation Centre), located at the Business and Technology Centre in Bessemer Drive, supports companies in the aerospace, defence, life science and ICT sectors encouraging their growth in the region.

In 2008 there were 3,058 Business Units in Stevenage, over 83.5% of them employed less than 10 employees.

The public administration, education and health sector with nearly 25% of employee jobs together with finance, IT, other business activities were the largest sectors in Stevenage. However, Stevenage is home to companies that employ graduate scientists and engineers including GlaxoSmithKline’s largest European R&D campus, which employs over 1,300 Research Scientists.

Some local employers

Advice for young people looking for a first job in Stevenage

Many young people in Stevenage are competing for jobs with local skilled people. The opportunities include admin, retail, catering, childcare – many jobs are tending to be part time hours at present During this difficult time there are very few vacancies those that are advertised tend to be part time.  If they are full time they tend to ask for experience. Young people need to think more widely about where they are willing to travel for work. Apply for part time as you never know whether it could lead to more hours, also try temporary jobs.  Volunteering may help to get experience – this makes young people look motivated and keen and can give them extra skills (e.g. charity shop could lead to a better position to apply for retail as skills gained such as customer service, handling stock, using tills etc).

Top 3 areas where year 11 students found employment and training:

·         Construction skills

·         Retail

·         Hairdressing and related