VCS employment continues to rise

Employment in the voluntary sector has experienced its second consecutive quarterly rise, according to the latest analysis of the Labour Force Survey, with the number of paid employees in the sector increased by approximately 20,000 between January and March, an increase of 2.6% on the previous quarter,

This follows on from employment levels experiencing a slight recovery during the final quarter of 2011, according to earlier analysis, with 36,000 employees entering the voluntary sector’s paid workforce between October and December 2011.

However, the number of paid staff is still 5,000 lower than it was 12 months ago and remains significantly less than the all-time high of 806,000 employees in mid-2010. In addition, the latest figures indicate that the majority of the recent increase has been among male employees, with certain parts of the sector more affected than others, in particular social care, which has seen a marked decline in staff numbers over the past year. There has also been a considerable increase in the number of employees employed on a temporary basis in the voluntary sector.

The findings were produced by Skills –Third Sector with support from the Third Sector Research Centre and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations. They form part of an ongoing study being conducted by the three organisations into overall voluntary sector workforce trends.