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.