Population: 287,700
Area: 15,054 hectares (37,200 acres)
This profile relates to Sefton as a whole and provides comparisons with Merseyside. It is also part of a suite of reports, which will break the data down further into Area Committees.
Labour Market Profile
| Labour Market | Sefton | Merseyside | ||
| No. | % | No. | % | |
| Economic Activity Rate - Working Age | 126,400 | 117,100 | 599,900 | 72.9 |
| Employment Rate - Working Age | 117,100 | 9,400 | 547,700 | 66.5 |
| Unemployment Rate - Working Age | 9,400 | 33,000 | 52,200 | 8.7 |
| Economic Inactivity Rate - Working Age | 33,000 | 117,100 | 223,500 | 27.1 |
| % of working age who are self employed | 13,100 | 8.2 | 56,700 | 6.9 |
- • The economic activity rate in Sefton is 6.4% higher than that for Merseyside.
- • Sefton has a more active labour market with the employment rate 6.9% higher than that for Merseyside.
- • The unemployment rate in Sefton remains below the Merseyside rate.
| Industry Employment | Sefton | Merseyside | ||
| No. | % | No. | % | |
| % all in employment who are: Managers & Senior Officials | 17,400 | 14.1 | 73,900 | 12.9 |
| % all in employment who are: Professional Occupations | 15,900 | 12.8 | 65,900 | 11.5 |
| % all in employment who are: Assoc Prof & Technical Occupations | 18,600 | 15.0 | 87,700 | 15.3 |
| % all in employment who are: administrative & secretarial occupations | 15,500 | 12.5 | 77,800 | 13.6 |
| % all in employment who are: skilled trades occupations | 12,700 | 10.3 | 60,000 | 10.5 |
| % all in employment who are: personal service occupations | 11,900 | 9.6 | 49,800 | 8.7 |
| % all in employment who are: sales and customer service occupations | 13,100 | 10.5 | 49,400 | 8.6 |
| % all in employment who are: process, plant & machine operatives | 6,600 | 5.3 | 41,900 | 7.3 |
| % all in employment who are: elementary occupations | 12,100 | 9.8 | 62,300 | 10.9 |
Qualifications
| Qualifications 2008 | Sefton | Merseyside | ||
| No. | % | No. | % | |
| % with NVQ4+ - working age | 43,800 | 27.5 | 196,300 | 23.9 |
| % with NVQ 3+ - working age | 74,300 | 46.6 | 345,000 | 42.0 |
| % with NVQ 2+ - working age | 105,800 | 66.3 | 522,700 | 63.6 |
| % with no qualifications - working age | 26,200 | 16.4 | 143,000 | 17.4 |
• Qualifications held by residents in the Sefton area are significantly higher than those for the Merseyside as a whole.
• There is also a much lower rate of residents with no qualifications.
Worklessness August 2009
| Sefton | Merseyside | ||
| No. | % | No. | % |
| 27,750 | 17.2 | 175,940 | 21.2 |
• Worklessness in Sefton is 4% lower than that for Merseyside.
• Data used to calculate worklessness is only issued on a quarterly basis and is 6 months in arrears, therefore the true impact of the current recession is not yet showing.
• The claimant count data in the next section is produced monthly and gives a clearer picture.
JSA Claimant Rate December 2009
| Sefton | Merseyside | ||
| No. | % | No. | % |
| 8,856 | 5.5 | 53,326 | 6.4 |
- • The claimant rate in the most effective way we have to measure the effects of the current recession. Other sources of data tend to have at least 6 months delay in data release.
- • The JSA claimant Rate in Sefton is almost 1.0% lower than for Merseyside.
- • The rate has shown some decline in January 2010 after becoming fairly stable towards the end of 2009.
The following graph shows change in the claimant rate January 2009 – January 2010
JSA Claimant Rate January 2009 - January 2010
VAT Registration/Deregistrations
| VAT Registration/Deregistrations | Sefton | Merseyside | As a % of Merseyside |
| No. | No. | % | |
| Stock at start of 2007 | 5,805 | 25,800 | 22.5 |
| VAT Registrations | 680 | 3,125 | 21.9 |
| VAT De-registrations | 435 | 2,025 | 21.5 |
| Stock at start of 2008 | 6,050 | 26,900 | 22.5 |
- • VAT Registration data has now been replaced by the Business Demography Statistics, however, at present the new data is not available at lower level geographies.
Businesses in Sefton 2005 - 2008
| Industry | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | ||||
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| Agriculture and fishing | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! |
| Energy & Water | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! | ! |
| Manufacturing | 600 | 6.7 | 600 | 6.4 | 500 | 6.1 | 500 | 5.8 |
| Construction | 800 | 9.4 | 800 | 9.9 | 900 | 10.2 | 1,000 | 11.0 |
| Distribution, hotels & restaurants | 2,800 | 32.9 | 2,800 | 32.4 | 2,700 | 31.3 | 2,700 | 30.4 |
| Transport & communication | 300 | 4.1 | 300 | 4.1 | 300 | 4.1 | 400 | 4.1 |
| Banking, finance and insurance | 2,200 | 25.9 | 2,200 | 26.4 | 2,400 | 27.6 | 2,500 | 28.0 |
| Public administration, education & health | 1,000 | 12.3 | 1,000 | 12.3 | 1,000 | 12.1 | 1,000 | 11.6 |
| Other Services | 700 | 8.5 | 700 | 8.2 | 700 | 8.4 | 800 | 8.5 |
| Total | 8,400 | 100% | 8,500 | 100% | 8,600 | 100% | 8,800 | 100% |
Note: ! confidential data which cannot be passed onto a third party unless named on the Chancellor of the Exchequers Notice. Data has been rounded to the nearest 100 for presentation purposes.
- • Between 2005 and 2008 the manufacturing sector continued to show a loss in the number of businesses, as did distribution, hotels and restaurants.
- • The construction sector continued to show growth, as did banking, finance and insurance.
- • The new figures released for 2008 show the impact of the current economic downturn.
Business Comparison with Merseyside 2008
| Industry | Sefton | Merseyside |
| No. | No. | |
| Agriculture and fishing | ! | ! |
| Energy & Water | ! | ! |
| Manufacturing | 5.8 | 6.2 |
| Construction | 11.0 | 10.2 |
| Distribution, hotels & restaurants | 30.4 | 29.2 |
| Transport & communication | 4.1 | 4.1 |
| Banking, finance and insurance | 28.0 | 29.0 |
| Public administration, education & health | 11.6 | 12.2 |
| Other Services | 8.5 | 8.7 |
| Total | 100 | 100 |
Note: ! confidential data which cannot be passed onto a third party unless named on the Chancellor of the Exchequers Notice.
- • Sefton’s proportion of businesses in the hotels and restaurant sector, and the construction sector is larger than for Merseyside.
- • The banking, finance and insurance, and the public administration, education and health sectors are smaller than for Merseyside.
- • The remaining sectors are similar to that for Merseyside
Travel to Work Area
40% of Sefton’s resident workforce travel to other parts of Merseyside and the wider region. 34,000 people commute from Sefton to work in out neighbouring authorities, most notably Liverpool (25,000), with smaller but significant numbers to Knowsley and West Lancashire. Almost 18,000 of their residents commute to jobs in Sefton.
Index of Local Deprivation
Sefton is ranked 83 out of 354 local authorities in the Index of Local Deprivation 2007. The lower the ranking the higher the deprivation.
Population
Sefton’s population is 275,100 and Sefton is spread over 153.1 km².
GVA
Sefton’s GVA was £3,341 million n 2006. An increase of 18.5% between 2001-2006. Sefton contributes 18.1% to Merseyside’s GVA.
Qualifications
Of the working age population According to the Annual Population Survey Jan – Dec 2008, there are 12.1% (15,000) of the economically active working age population with no qualifications in Sefton, and 31.9% (39,600) having Level 4 and above.
Employers
The majority of businesses in Sefton are SME’s. 96% of businesses employ less than 50 workers. According to the Annual Business Inquiry 2007, Sefton has approximately 6,100 businesses.
Key Sectors
The biggest employment sectors in Sefton are in public administration and health and distribution, hotels and restaurants.
Growth Sectors
The growth sectors in Sefton are tourism, maritime, ICT, construction, social & health sectors and creative industries.
Unemployment Claimant
Unemployment in Sefton in December 2009 was 5.2% (8,440). The worst affected Super Output Areas in Sefton receive funding from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund to tackle worklessness. The south of the borough has a higher rate of unemployment and has attracted funds from Central Government of tackle this problem.
Transport Links
Sefton has an extensive, well-developed and well-used transport network. Half of the population live within easy reach of the bus network. There are high frequency local rail services running from the north to the south of the borough, and more people are using the train to travel. Travel to work is mainly by car (57.7%) or public transport (20.8%). There is a good road network with generally good access to the motorway network through the M57 and M58.
Further information can be found in a document on the Sefton Borough Partnership website 
For further information contact:
Contact: Tracy Brennan (Economic Intelligence Officer)
Telephone: 0151 934 3483
Email: tracy.brennan@regen.sefton.gov.uk
