Employment rate

The employment rate measures the proportion of the working age population (aged 16-64) that are in employment.  In the Oct 2019-Sep 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 3.8 percentage points when compared to the same period in 2013/14
• this was a slightly higher percentage point increase than nationally but was only the fifth highest among the eight core city LEPs
• the North East rate was 0.1 percentage points lower than a year earlier, while the England rate had increased slightly

Within the North East, the employment rate for local authority areas ranged from 66.7 per cent in South Tyneside to 78.1 per cent in North Tyneside. Within North East constituencies it was highest in Hexham (80.1 per cent) and North Tyneside constituency (79.4 per cent). The latter is a different, smaller, area to the identically named local authority. The rate is lowest in Newcastle upon Tyne Central and South Shields (61.8 and 65.3 per cent, respectively). These statistics are based on location of residence rather than workplace and cover a twelve-month period, almost half of which was before the economy was affected by Covid-19.