Has the voluntary sector reached “peak workforce”?
3rd November 2011
The launch of our UK Voluntary Sector Workforce Almanac 2011, in partnership with Skills - Third Sector and TSRC, comes at a crucial time for the voluntary sector and its employees. Over the last ten years the sector and its workforce have, on the whole, been experiencing a high level of growth, both in terms of money coming into the sector, but linked to this the number of people working within it. These latest findings present a picture of the sector up until the end of 2010 when, whilst the recession had hit the UK economy, the full impact on the voluntary sector was just around the corner.
On the up
Between 2001 and 2010 the number of people being paid to work within the voluntary sector grew by a staggering 40%, creating a workforce of more than three-quarters of a million (765,000) people. This rapid growth has been fuelled by the policy of contracting out public services to the voluntary (and private) sectors, and by increased spending on public services.
Going down
With the reduction in government spending, the increased pressure on the household purse and the increasing demand for services, the voluntary sector and its workforce are being squeezed in all directions. Our latest employment figures show that voluntary sector employment has fallen by 5% between the second quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2011.
What about the future?
Looking to the future, some commentators argue that the number of people employed in the sector will on the whole continue to increase on the back of voluntary organisations increasing their role in public service delivery, the transfer of organisations and their employees from the public to the voluntary sector, and the increase in mutualisation.
Others look at the increasing government cuts aimed at the voluntary sector, rising costs and increased competition with the private sector and foresee a continued decline in sector employment.
It is therefore more important than ever to track the changes that are happening within our workforce, and use this evidence to flag up the importance of the sector and its work. We hope this Workforce Almanac helps to provide the evidence required in which to do this.
For the latest information on the main traits of voluntary sector employment, including its size and characteristics, the nature of working conditions within the sector, and the levels of skills and training across the sector please download the Workforce Almanac. Jenny Clark is a research manager at NCVO. Contact Jenny or follow her tweets. For further thoughts on researching the sector read Karl and Dave’s blogs or sign up to our public policy newsletter.- Jenny Clark's blog
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Jenny Clark, Research Manager, shares her thoughts on the latest research and emerging trends in the voluntary sector.
Comments
Good post Jenny,
It's certainly an interesting time for the sector and there are a number of external factors that it will be interesting to set against this work to test impact:
- What would be the result of a new recession/Euro crisis
- Are any changes in the size of the workforce in the voluntary sector to do with an increased desire of people and therefore organisations to 'do good'? (ie. a larger number of charities or social enterprises being started) OR is it simply that voluntary sector's gain is public sector's loss?
- is any increase or decrease in staff numbers reflective of similar rises or falls in the number of active volunteers (and is there a set ratio around this).
Finally, and where my two worlds collide (!) there's a bigger issue: productivity... aka impact. It's pretty academic how many people are in jobs that change the world if the world is changing less! This might be controversial to some people, but ANY organisation that grows will grow inefficiency within it, so having periods of growth followed by periods of correction, realignment and cuts is part of the natural cycle of things - this is a truth which is either convenient or incovenient depending on your political colour I guess! So, I guess my reflection is that all of this is really about measuring value and impact: easier to measure at an organisational level than as a sector, but worth being conscious of nevertheless.