Anthony Plumridge, Principal Lecturer, School of Economics, University of the West of England, Bristol, talks to the SWO Future Skills seminar on key sectors in the region and West of England Area.

1. Key Sectors in the West of England Anthony Plumridge Bristol Business School

2. What makes a sector Key? Scale – significant for the sub-regional economy Growth potential – recent growth best indicator Above UK average as proportion of employment (Location Quotient >1) High external income generation (large proportion of revenue from outside sub-region) High income retention (high local multiplier) 1 to 3 readily quantifiable from employment data 4 and 5 difficult to assess from available data

3. Identifying Key Sectors Three employment criteria for judging the significance of a sector Scale of sector – percentage of WofE employment Growth of employment over 2004-2006 Importance of sector in WofE relative to importance of sector in UK as a whole sector using employment Location Quotients These three criteria are combined: Combined Measure = Location Quotient x Proportional growth x Employment % Applied to 235 sub-sectors from the Standard Industrial Classification SIC 3 digit)

4. Ranking of WofE sub-sectors

5. Defining key sectors

6. What makes a sector Key? Scale – significant for the sub-regional economy Growth potential – recent growth best indicator Above UK average as proportion of employment (Location Quotient >1) High external income generation (large proportion of revenue from outside sub-region) High income retention (high local multiplier) Business survey to indicate “exports” and “imports” Regional Accounts input-output model provides indicative multipliers

7. Income creation and retention index

8. Overall ranking of sectors

9. What sectors are other regions prioritising?

10. How competitive are WofE businesses?

11. Barriers to growth - suggested

14. Advanced Engineering and Environmental Technology

15. Leisure and Tourism and Food and DrinkOngoing infrastructure/premises improvement Continue to collect data on key sector businesses, their markets and supply chains