The October 2023 Surrey Labour Market Intelligence Report (LMI) has been released by the Surrey Board of Trade.
“Tracking labour market trends in an ongoing way is important to ensure our policy framework is focused on developing a suitably skilled workforce, a broad availability of good-quality education as a foundation for future training, and a close matching of skills supply to the needs of enterprises and labour markets. It enables workers and enterprises to adjust to changes in technology and markets, and to anticipate and prepare for the skills needs of the future,” said Anita Huberman, President & CEO, Surrey Board of Trade. “This will fuel Surrey’s innovation, investment, economic diversification and competitiveness, as well as social and occupational mobility.”
The October 2023 LMI Report indicates sustained growth in jobs among the natural resources and utility sectors; while, unfortunately, manufacturing employment has lagged over the last two years and construction has shown only small jobs growth. There are significant recoveries in large service industries such as wholesale and retail, transportation and warehousing, and finance.
The largest industry employment sectors in Surrey in September 2023 were a combination of knowledge-based services and goods-producing sectors:
1. Wholesale and retail trade (57,474 or 17.1% of total jobs in Surrey);
2. Health care and social assistance (41,556 or 12.4% of total jobs in Surrey);
3. Transportation and warehousing (30,817 or 9.2% of total jobs in Surrey);
4. Construction (30,404 or 9.1% of total jobs in Surrey);
5. Manufacturing (26,659 or 7.9% of total jobs in Surrey); and,
6. Professional, scientific and technical services (25,100 or 7.6% of total jobs in Surrey).
The sectors with the most negative employment change in Surrey over the last 12 months are estimated to be:
1. Employment in business, building and other support services declined by a huge 24.2% or -3,952 jobs.
2. Construction job growth further reversed over the last 12 months, dropping -2,740 jobs or 8.3%.
3. Manufacturing employment in Surrey dropped by 6.4% over the last 12 months (or -1,840 jobs).
4. Surrey’s information, culture and recreation sector lost over -1,100 jobs or 7.8% of employment.
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