Employment rate

The employment rate measures the proportion of the working age population (aged 16-64) that are in employment.  In the Jan-Dec 2020 twelve-month period (the most recent data):

• 71.9 per cent of the 16-64 population in the North East LEP area were in employment  
• this was below the national rate and was the second lowest among the eight core city LEPs
• the North East employment rate had increased by 3.0 percentage points when compared to 2014
• this was a slightly lower percentage point increase than nationally and was the joint second lowest among the eight core city LEPs
• the North East rate was 0.8 percentage points higher than a year earlier, while the England rate had decreased slightly

Within the North East, the employment rate for local authority areas ranged from 66.3 per cent in South Tyneside to 76.9 per cent in North Tyneside. Within North East constituencies it was highest in North Tyneside constituency (79.8 per cent) and Hexham (78.2 per cent). The first of these is a different, smaller, area to the identically named local authority. The rate is lowest in Washington and Sunderland West constituency and South Shields (63.5 and 63.8 per cent, respectively). These statistics are based on location of residence rather than workplace and cover a twelve-month period, a quarter of which was before the economy was affected by Covid-19.