Below are some of the key facts about Oxford’s labour market:

  • Oxford has extremely high employment levels within ‘knowledge intensive’ sectors; equivalent to 73% of total employment
  • 60.2% of Oxford’s residents are qualified to NVQ level 4 or above - this is significantly higher when compared with the South East at 39%, and England at 36%
  • around 43,600 students, undergraduate and post-graduate, attend the city’s two universities; the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes
  • Oxford’s importance as an employment location is further demonstrated by its job density; the ratio of all jobs to residents aged 16-64 - the ratio is 1.08, again well above that of the South East (0.83) and Great Britain (0.8)
  • Oxford’s Job Seekers Allowance claimant rate is low at 0.6% or 715 individuals (December 2015) and the youth claimant count is also low at 0.3% or 85 people - however, 21% of the population is economically inactive, just above the 19.9% South East average
  • there is a high level of in-commuting with 46,000 people coming into the city to work on a daily basis
  • we pay the Oxford Living Wage to all staff and contractors working for us

Nomis publishes a profile of Oxford's labour market which contains the most comprehensive and up to date statistics.