New almanac chronicles a decade's growth in the voluntary sector workforce

Newly-published research has revealed a significant growth in the size of the voluntary sector workforce over the past decade.

The UK Voluntary Sector Workforce Almanac 2011, published today (26 October 2011), shows that there were 765,000 people working in the voluntary sector in 2010, an increase of 40% since 2001. This represents a quicker rate of growth than that experienced in either the public or the private sectors over the same period. Such long term growth precedes our recently released figures showing indications of a downturn in voluntary sector employment during 2011.

Produced in partnership between NCVO, Skills - Third Sector and TSRC, the Workforce Almanac draws upon a decade’s worth of authoritative data to explore how the sector’s workforce has changed between 2001 and 2010 in a user-friendly and accessible format for voluntary sector employers and managers. Sixteen themes explore the main traits of voluntary sector employment, covering its size and characteristics, the nature of working conditions within the sector, and the levels of skills and training across the sector.

The Almanac illustrates the importance of the voluntary sector’s contribution to the UK over the past decade, showing the range of occupations and skills that exist within the sector. It also suggests a range of challenges for the voluntary sector and its workforce over the coming years as we cope with an ageing population, rising unemployment, and constrained public spending. The Workforce Almanac provides reliable information on the current state of the voluntary sector workforce and its capacity to deal with such challenges.

Key findings include:

• In 2010, over half a million women (522,000) were employed in the voluntary sector.
• More than half (57%) of the voluntary sector workforce were employed in ‘health and social work’, equating to 437,000 people.
• The sector now employs around 2.7% of the UK workforce, a proportion that has slowly increased from 2% in 2001.
• Over one-third (38%) of voluntary sector workers were employed part-time, a higher proportion than within the private and public sectors.
• Gross weekly pay in the voluntary sector amounted to an average of £397.71 in 2010, lower than in both the private and public sectors (£452.60 and £466.53 respectively).
• More than one-third (37%) of voluntary sector employees hold a degree level qualification or higher.

Download your free copy of the Almanac (PDF 495KB) or contact us for a hard copy. You can also access the data tables (Excel 5.7MB) behind the Workforce Almanac and download a free postcard (PDF 160KB) of the key statistics.

Our Research Manager Jenny Clark has blogged about this research in her latest post, Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes: The voluntary sector workforce over the last decade.

During this time some characteristics of the sector’s workforce have changed significantly whilst others have stayed remarkably consistent.

Find out more about NCVO's wider research on measuring the size and scope of the voluntary sector's paid workforce at www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/workforce.