London's boroughs - Borough by sector jobs, data and methodology

GLA Economics has produced a London Jobs series from 1971-2015 for sectors and boroughs. Working Paper 92 sets out the methodology used to develop a borough by sector employee jobs series, and the properties of this experimental series.

In 1971 the largest sector of the London economy was Manufacturing. Jobs in this sector had declined by over 85% by 2015, while Professional and real estate services had become the dominant sector and employee jobs more than tripled over the same period. These changes have been taking place gradually, and it was only by 2001 that the number of London employee jobs was higher than in 1971.

While developments at the borough level have been more convoluted what has remained the same has been the strength of the jobs market in central London, and in west London around Heathrow airport, and particularly Hillingdon. Inner London has seen the strongest growth in jobs from specialisation in business services, and has been able to reap agglomeration economies from the clustering of sector jobs. West London has a more diverse economy.

There are ten boroughs dispersed around London which had not recovered by 2015 to the level of employee jobs in 1971. Jobs growth has been weakest in areas to the east of London. What has distinguished the more successful areas is their ability to attract jobs in business services.

Breakdowns of the borough by sector employee jobs numbers for 1971-2015 are available on the London Datastore.