Employment growth in call centre-related occupations in the UK has been nearly three times the overall growth in employment, says an article in September's Labour Market Trends, published today by the Office for National Statistics.
Imports and exports of services such as computing and 'other business services' (which includes call centres) show that the UK has a steady current account surplus in both sectors. In other words, the UK is gaining from the increasing trend in trade of IT-enabled services - imports may have grown but exports have grown just as fast.
In spring 2005 UK employment in IT and call centre occupations stood at 1.05 million. It had grown by 8.8 per cent in the previous four years, compared with overall employment growth of 3.2 per cent. The employment data by region for these occupations do not show any major variation from this trend, which suggests that the offshoring that has happened has had minimal effect on the employment prospects of IT-enabled occupations by region.
If the increasing use of offshoring by UK firms were having a negative impact, increasing redundancy levels might be expected. However, redundancies in these occupations have been falling since 2001, although they are higher than the national average.
Other articles this month include:
The effect of bonuses on earnings growth in 2005
Bonus payments in the main 'bonus season' from December 2004 to April 2005 were up £1 billion on the same period the year before. There was a particularly large effect in February 2005, caused partly by some bonuses paid in February each year being higher than last year and partly by some firms paying bonuses in February of 2005 compared with March of 2004.
Analysis by occupation of JSA claimant count statistics
This article describes the reintroduction of data on sought and usual occupations of Jobseeker's Allowance claimants, which were suspended in 2000 because of the switch in coding from the Standard Occupational Classification 1990 to the Standard Occupational Classification 2000. Some time was needed for the new codings to become reliable enough to recommence publication.
Patterns of pay: results of the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 1998-2004
This article presents the results of the ASHE. It looks at overall medians, make-up and distribution of earnings and gives a summary analysis of earnings in different industries, occupations, regions and age groups.
News and research items include:
- Annual Population Survey
- New analysis in workless households release
- Research programme quarterly update
- National Statistics Socio-economic Classification user manual
- 2004 Workplace Employee Relations Survey
- Disabled people in Britain
Labour Market Trends Volume 113 No 9. For subscriptions and sales, tel: 01256 357893, fax: 01256 330688. Downloadable free at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=550
BACKGROUND NOTES
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