Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire is home to over 1.14 million people with 77% of residents living and working in the area.

The North Staffordshire conurbation, comprising Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme represents a very urban economy, but two-thirds of Staffordshire consist of rural areas. These rural areas are important drivers of economic growth due to a strong agriculture sector and spin-off industries including the food and drink sector, and tourism.

Jobs are mostly concentrated in Stoke-on-Trent, Stafford, Burton-upon-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme.

The top five employment sectors are:

• Retail and wholesale (81,000 people)

• Business, financial and professional services (77,500 employees)

• Health and Social Care (73,000 people)

• Manufacturing (52,000 people)

• Transport and storage (38,000 people)

Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire are home to a range of major companies in business, financial and professional services, including the head offices of JCB, Michelin (UK) and Bet365, Vodafone’s contact centre and IT services. These businesses all offer a wide range of jobs, from accountancy and IT support to HR and finance. Customer service skills are in high demand and some companies offer multilingual services.

There is a large number of transport and logistics hubs in the area. Employment hotspots for freight transport by road, warehousing and storage include Stoke-on-Trent, Cannock Chase, Newcastle-under-Lyme, East Staffordshire and Stafford. Employment in the sector is more than twice the English average (5%) in Cannock (12.5%) and Newcastle-under-Lyme (10%).

Building on the heritage of its pottery industry, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire is also home to many big names in advanced manufacturing and engineering and is leading innovations in automotive, ceramics and advanced materials, food and drinks, and medical devices. The area has five high-growth manufacturing sub-sectors including agricultural technologies, advanced materials, automotive and aeronautics, medical technologies and energy.

There are over 40 automotive companies in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire and the area has strong capabilities in engines and turbines, fluid power equipment, electrical wiring, tyres and construction machinery. The area is home to global brands including Magna Automotive, Michelin, Johnson Controls and Pirelli. The JCB Academy is one of the UK’s first university technical colleges for manufacturing and engineering.

The area has a strong ceramics heritage. As well as companies producing the traditional ceramic wares that The Potteries are so famous for, technical ceramics is a growing area and advanced materials are being developed to support the automotive, construction, energy and healthcare industries with over 400 enterprises involved including Lucideon, a leading materials technology research company. In total, 7,000 people are employed in the ceramics sector and 26,300 are employed in advanced materials activities across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.