Economic Statistics

Quick facts 

  • The City of Oxford is home to around 4,730 businesses, collectively employing approximately 118,000 people. In addition self-employment and the armed forces account for another 13,000 jobs bringing the total number of jobs in the local economy to 135,000 jobs
  • The city has a large number of people employed in universities and the public sector, but also has significant jobs in other sectors including publishing, tourism, hospitality and a growing hi-tech sector fuelled by the highly-qualified workforce. For additional details, please visit our labour market and major employers pages.
  • There is a high level of commuting into the city. According to the 2011 Census 88,000 people had their main job in Oxford – 46,000 of them lived outside the city.
  • Oxford is the tourism gateway to the rest of Oxfordshire. We attract approximately 7 million day time and staying visitors per year, generating £780 million of income for local Oxford businesses. In terms of overseas visitors to the UK, Oxford is the eighth most visited city for staying visits.
  • The number of Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) claimants plus those who claim Universal Credit (UC) who are out of work is currently 4,596 or 4.2% of workers as of June 2020. This compares to 1,915 and 1.8% of workers as of last June.
  • The number of people unemployed is different to the number of people claiming JSA or UC - as some unemployed people choose not to claim or are not eligible to claim. The most recent estimate of Oxford's unemployment rate is 2.3% for the period April 2019 to March 2020; this is below the national average of 4.0%.

Economic Publications 

More Oxford Economic Publications

Charts of the Month

Data

Further links