Page 146 - Minutes of meeting

The Labour Market Challenge

Skills

Approximately 33% of the BTD area’s residents are employed in higher level occupations, which is below the rates noted for
Barrow as a whole and Cumbria (39%) and substantially below those of England (48%). There has been a decline of 17% in
the proportion of residents occupied in higher level professions in the BTD area since 2014, which contrast with the 15%

growth observed across the Barrow borough. This suggests that residents of the BTD area have not been able to access the
higher level employment opportunities presented by economic growth in the borough.

Notably, 48% of Barrow’s workforce are engaged in
higher level occupations, a growth of 32% since 2014. Share of higher level occupations in the workforce, 2019
Thus, the gap between resident and workplace

population employed in higher level occupations
widened significantly from 2 percentage points in 2014
to 10 percentage points in 2019.

Looking ahead, occupational growth is forecast across
all levels in Cumbria, with the exception of elementary
trade, plant & machine operative occupations which
are expected to contract*. These occupations are held
by approximately 25% of the BTD resident population

currently, and illustrate the potential threat this cohort
faces to drivers such as automation and digitalisation.

The following page illustrates changes to the
occupational structure in Barrow.

Source: Annual Population Survey, ONS 2019 *CLEP, LIS Evidence Base