Latest Labour Force Survey figures for the third quarter of 2010 show that the voluntary sector now employs 793,000 people, a slight decrease of 2 per cent since the last quarter. This is in contrast to the private sector which has shown a slight increase of 2 per cent, whilst the public sector stayed reasonably static.

The findings were produced by the Third Sector Research Centre and NCVO in partnership with Skills - Third Sector.

The findings come as part of an ongoing study being conducted by these three bodies into overall voluntary sector workforce trends.

Skills – Third Sector is talking to potential partners about building National Skills Networks, which will bring learning providers and organisations together and make it easier for people to find and share expertise and pool learning resources at a time when shrinking budgets and fewer staff make it harder to maintain skills and experience.