Charity sector workforce grows by 40 per cent in ten years 2

Governance | Vibeka Mair | 26 Oct 2011

The voluntary sector employs more women and has a slightly older workforce compared with the public and private sectors, according to new research.

The UK Voluntary Sector Workforce Almanac 2011, released today by NCVO, Skills Third Sector and the Third Sector Research Centre, also found that gross weekly pay in the voluntary sector amounted to an average of £397.71 in 2010, lower than in both the private and public sectors (£452.60 and £466.53 respectively).

It found that in 2010, there were 765,000 people employed in the UK voluntary sector, an increase of 40 per cent since 2001. This represents a quicker rate of growth than that experienced in either the public or the private sectors over the same period.

The voluntary sector now employs 2.7 per cent of the UK workforce, a proportion that has slowly increased from 2 per cent in 2001.

Also, in 2010, the almanac finds that 68 per cent of the voluntary sector workforce was female, compared with 64 per cent in the public sector and only 39 per cent in the private sector.

However, the survey also found that whilst there was nearly twice as many women as men employed in the voluntary sector, only around one-tenth of women working in the sector reached the highest levels compared to a fifth of men.

Other analysis on diversity found the charity workforce was slightly older with over one-third of voluntary sector paid staff being aged over 50, compared to 32 per cent in the public sector and 27 per cent in the private sector.

The voluntary sector employs a slightly lower proportion of black and minority ethnic people (7 per cent) than in the public and private sectors (9 and 10 per cent respectively). And employs a higher proportion of disabled people (20 per cent) than in the public (15 per cent) and private (14 per cent) world.

More than one-third (37 per cent) of voluntary sector employees hold a degree level qualification or higher.

Directory: National Council of Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) | Third Sector Research Centre (TSRC)

Place a comment

Jenny Clark
Research Manager
NCVO
26 Oct 2011

Vibeka, thanks for your coverage of our research. I just wanted to clarify your first sentence. The voluntary sector's workforce comprises a higher proportion of women (68%) than the public and private sectors (64% and 39% respectively). However, the voluntary sector isn't the largest employer of women - both the private and the public sectors employ a much larger number of women. The voluntary sector employs 522,000 women, compared to 7.8 million in the private sector and 4.6 million in the public sector. Many thanks, Jenny Clark, NCVO

[Reply]

Vibeka Mair
26 Oct 2011
Response to [Jenny Clark]

Thanks for this Jenny. I've made the change to reflect your clarifications.

Kind regards.

[Reply]

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