Skills and Employment

The South London area has a resident population of 2.9 million.
Approximately 65.9 per cent of the population is of working age.
The area has an entrepreneurial labour force, with an average of 10.6 per cent of those of working age setting up their own business, compared with London at 10.6 per cent and the UK at 9.1 per cent.

Unemployment in the region averages at 4.1 per cent, which is lower than the rate for London at 4.5 per cent and the UK average of 4.2 per cent.

Average weekly earnings for a South Londoner are £556.90 per person (2009) compared with the London regional weekly earnings of £627.40

The workforce is highly educated with an average of 40.7 per cent of the working age population educated to degree level (NVQ4+), compared with 38.6 per cent for London, and considerably higher than the UK average of 29 per cent.

The South London region is well served by higher education institutions as follows:

•British School of Osteopathy, Southwark

•Goldsmiths College University of London, Lewisham

• King’s College London, in Southwark & Lambeth part of University of London

•Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames

•London College of Communications, Southwark

– part of the University of the Arts London

•London South Bank University, Southwark

•Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication, Bromley

•Roehampton University, Wandsworth

•Rose Bruford College, Bexley

•St George’s University of London, Wandsworth

• St Mary’s University College, Richmond

•The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, Sutton

•Trinity Laban, Greenwich and Lewisham

•University of Greenwich, Greenwich

• Wimbledon College of Art – University of the Arts London, Merton