York’s economy combines a large working-age population, high employment, a highly qualified workforce and a service-led business base. The latest figures also show pressure points: housing affordability, a measurable full-time pay gap and a city-centre vacancy rate of 6.2%. The figures below cover different periods, so each measurement date is stated explicitly.
Contents
- Population and working-age base
- Employment, unemployment and inactivity
- Occupations, qualifications and skills
- Pay, income and living standards
- Jobs and business structure
- GVA and York’s sector mix
- Business vitality and economic outlook
Population and working-age base
York’s estimated population was 209,118 in 2025. Women accounted for 109,694 residents. Of the total population, 138,958 people were aged 16 to 64, equivalent to 66.4% of residents. These population estimates are reported in the Labour Market Profile - York for 2025.
The working-age population was broadly similar as a share of both male and female residents. There were 65,955 males aged 16 to 64, or 66.3% of male residents, and 73,003 females in the same age group, or 66.6% of female residents. That provides the demographic base against which York’s employment and inactivity rates are measured.
The distinction matters because the rates in the labour-market data are generally calculated for residents aged 16 to 64, rather than for the whole population. A population count therefore describes the potential labour pool, while the activity and employment figures below describe how that pool was participating in the economy during the stated survey period.
Employment, unemployment and inactivity
Between April 2025 and March 2026, York had 119,600 economically active people and an activity rate of 81.5% among 16-to-64-year-olds. Employment stood at 117,300 people, producing an employment rate of 79.9%. Both measures come from the Labour Market Profile - York.
Employees accounted for 103,700 people, or 71.5% of residents aged 16 to 64. Self-employment accounted for a further 12,900 people, or 8.1% of the same age group. These categories describe residents’ employment status, so they should not be confused with the separate count of jobs located in York.
Unemployment is reported in two ways for the same April 2025 to March 2026 period. The Annual Population Survey recorded 2,300 unemployed people, equal to 1.9% of the economically active population. The ONS model-based estimate was higher at 3,700 people, or 3.0% of the economically active population. The two figures should be retained as distinct measures rather than combined: one is the survey result and the other is a model-based estimate.
York had 25,700 economically inactive residents aged 16 to 64, an inactivity rate of 18.5%. Students made up 9,300 of this group, or 36.1%, while long-term sickness accounted for 5,700 people, or 22.3%. A further 4,600 economically inactive residents wanted a job, representing 17.9% of the inactive group. These figures identify different relationships with the labour market and do not imply that all inactive residents were available to start work immediately.
Occupations, qualifications and skills
York’s employment profile is weighted towards professional and technical work. In April 2025 to March 2026, professional occupations employed 38,500 residents, or 32.8% of employment. Associate professional and technical occupations employed 18,800 people, or 16.0%, while managers, directors and senior officials accounted for 12,000 people, or 10.2%.
The remaining reported occupation groups show a more varied labour market. Elementary occupations employed 13,000 residents, or 11.0%. Administrative and secretarial occupations accounted for 9,200 people, or 7.8%, and caring, leisure and other service occupations for 8,500 people, or 7.2%. Skilled trades employed 6,500 residents, or 5.6%, while sales and customer-service occupations employed 6,500, or 5.5%. These shares are from the Labour Market Profile - York.
Qualification levels provide another view of the workforce. In January to December 2025, 74,400 York residents aged 16 to 64 held qualifications at RQF level 4 or above, equal to 53.8% of that age group. At the other end of the distribution, 4,300 residents had no qualifications, or 3.1% of 16-to-64-year-olds. The two measures use the same annual period but describe different parts of the qualification profile; the higher-level figure should not be read as a complete measure of every skilled worker.
Pay, income and living standards
Median gross weekly pay for full-time York residents was £766.60 in 2025. The resident measure was £823.10 for men and £728.60 for women. Median hourly pay excluding overtime was £20.84 overall, with a median of £21.81 for male residents and £19.69 for female residents. These are medians, so they describe the midpoint of the relevant pay distribution rather than an average.
Pay measured by workplace was very similar in one headline measure: median gross weekly pay for full-time employees working in York was £766.40 in 2025. The reported median full-time workplace pay gap between male and female employees was £147.10 per week. Resident pay and workplace pay answer different questions: one is based on where people live and the other on where employees work.
| 2025 pay measure | York figure |
|---|---|
| Full-time resident weekly pay | £766.60 |
| Full-time male resident weekly pay | £823.10 |
| Full-time female resident weekly pay | £728.60 |
| Full-time resident hourly pay, excluding overtime | £20.84 |
| Full-time workplace weekly pay | £766.40 |
Housing costs add an affordability dimension. Full-time employees in York faced a median house-price-to-earnings ratio of 8.5 in 2024, according to the Report Template. This ratio is a 2024 affordability measure, while the pay figures above are for 2025; they should not be treated as a single-year calculation.
Jobs and business structure
York had 133,000 total jobs and a job density of 0.96 in 2024. There were 118,000 employee jobs, of which 76,000 were full-time and 42,000 were part-time. Full-time jobs represented 64.4% of employee jobs and part-time jobs represented 35.6%.
The largest reported employee-job sectors were human health and social work, with 18,000 jobs, or 15.3% of the total. Wholesale, retail and motor-vehicle repair accounted for 15,000 jobs, or 12.7%. Education accounted for 14,000 jobs, or 11.9%, and accommodation and food services for 13,000 jobs, or 11.0%. Together, these figures show the importance of public services, consumer-facing activity, education and hospitality in York’s job base. The sector counts and shares are from the Labour Market Profile - York.
York had 7,120 enterprises in 2025. Of these, 6,170 were micro-enterprises with 0 to 9 employees, meaning micro-enterprises represented 86.7% of all enterprises. This is a business-count measure, not a measure of turnover or employment, so the high number of small firms does not mean they account for the same share of jobs or economic output.
GVA and York’s sector mix
York’s all-industry gross value added was £6.112 billion at current prices in 2020, compared with £3.150 billion in 1998. The figures come from the York Economic Strategy 2022-2032 Technical Annex. Because these are current-price values from different years, the change should not be interpreted as a real-terms growth rate without an appropriate price adjustment.
The composition of the economy also changed. Food manufacturing represented 11.5% of York’s GVA in 1998, compared with 4.8% of the local economy by value in 2020. In 2020, real estate activities generated £840 million of GVA, human health and social work generated £776 million, financial and insurance activities generated £685 million, and wholesale and retail generated £626 million.
The technical annex reports that York’s service sector increased by around £3 billion at current prices between 1998 and 2020. It also states that the value of York’s insurance businesses was three times its 1998 level in 2020. Those historical comparisons retain their reported current-price scope and should not be read as inflation-adjusted measures.
Business vitality and economic outlook
York recorded 767 business start-ups in the year to February 2024, according to the Council Plan Progress Report for 2025. The latest reported one-year survival rate for newly born businesses was 93.9%, as stated in the Report Template. The survival figure is labelled as the latest reported year in the 2025-26 report, rather than assigned a more precise period than the source provides.
City-centre trading conditions were mixed. In Q2 2025-26, vacant city-centre shops represented 6.2% of York’s city-centre shops, equivalent to 39 shops. This is a vacancy share for a specific quarter and location, not a vacancy rate for every commercial property in York.
The same report gives York’s GVA per head as £41,162 in 2023-24, up from £37,748 in 2022-23. These are per-head output measures and are separate from household income or individual pay.
The outlook figures are forecasts, not observed results. Oxford Economics forecast York’s GVA to rise from £5.7 billion in 2020 to £7.3 billion in 2032. Its 2022 forecast put York’s average annual GVA growth at 1.58% between 2022 and 2032, compared with 1.78% for the UK. The forecast for accommodation and food-services GVA rose from £150.7 million in 2022 to £334 million in 2032. These projections are from the York Economic Strategy 2022-2032 Technical Annex and should be distinguished from the historical and survey-based figures elsewhere in this article.