Business, work & employment data and insight

We have a high employment rate with 77.9% of working-age residents in employment in the 12 months up to June 2022

62.8% of residents are of working age (16 to 64)
82.3% of residents are economically active, and men (82.9%) are more economically active than women (81.5%)
of those who are economically active (82.3%), 3.8% of residents were unemployed

in 2020, there were 85,000 jobs in the borough, which has declined since 2019
of jobs in Bexley, 64.9% were full-time jobs while 36.5% were part-time jobs
job density (number of jobs per resident of working age 16 to 64) was 0.54 meaning Bexley has a low number of jobs in comparison to the rest of London (job density of 0.99)¹

we have a larger private sector than public sector. There were 64,400 employees working in the private sector compared to 11,200 employees working in the public sector in 2020²
there were 8,855 active enterprises in 2022 in the borough¹
in 2022, 98.8% of businesses had fewer than 50 employees. 92.0% had fewer than 10 employees. Only 0.2% of businesses had 250 or more employees¹
our largest industries (by % employees) in 2021 were ‘Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles’ at 18.9%, ‘Administrative and Support service activities’ at 12.2% and ‘Education and Health and Social work activities’ at 10.8%¹
the most common occupation categories for residents are ‘Professional Occupations’ at 29.8% and ‘Administrative and Secretarial Occupations’ at 13.9%¹

the gross weekly pay for full-time workers who were residents in 2022 was £780.60. This is higher than London (£765.40)
we have a gender pay gap – male full-time workers make £854.50 per week while female full-time workers make £690.00 per week
gross weekly pay for residents is higher than gross weekly pay for workers in Bexley¹

3.1% of residents claim out-of-work benefits, meaning we have the 6^th lowest claim rate in London
more men (3.4% of the male working population) claim out-of-work benefits than women (2.8% of the female working population)¹

we are the 8^th least deprived borough in London, and no wards fall within the top 10% most deprived in the country³
there are pockets of deprivation, mainly falling in the north of the borough but also elsewhere, such as the far south³
14.5% of children in Bexley live in low-income families (before housing costs), we are the 13th lowest borough in London for the number and percentage of children in low-income families⁴

Related

Sources

Bexley Data Hub