Over 4 million UK jobs depend on exports to EU

New research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) shows that in 2011 (latest available figures) 4.2 million jobs, or 13.3% of the UK workforce, were associated with exports to the European Union.

Within this 4.2 million, around 3.1 million UK jobs were directly supported by exports to the EU in 2011 and 1.1 million jobs were indirectly supported – i.e. through spending income earned from exports.

Total income associated with demand from EU exports was £211 billion or £3,500 per head of the population in 2011.

The analysis also examines change over time, finding that the number of jobs associated with demand from the EU has increased from 3.7 million to 4.2 million over the period 1997–2011.

The number of jobs associated with EU demand in professional, technical, scientific services and in business and administration support services have risen particularly rapidly having doubled in both of those industrial sectors between 1997 and 2011.

Manufacturing has fared less well in this respect, losing jobs, but this is against the backdrop of structural decline in UK manufacturing employment over the period and the 2011 figures were compiled during the post-crisis sustained weakness in economic growth.

The region that gained the most jobs was London, which now has 27% more EU-supported jobs than it did in 1997.

The only region to have fewer EU-associated jobs now than in 1997 was the West Midlands. Nevertheless, the West Midlands still has 385,000 jobs linked to EU demand.