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Home > Top ten reasons to choose Cardiff > Workforce

Workforce

Cardiff is the economic driver for a city-region of 1.4 million people, with a pool of 14 million people within a two-hour drivetime. It has one of the best student retention rates in the UK, reflecting the city’s high quality employment offer and outstanding quality of life.

Located on the M4 corridor, and within easy reach of London, Cardiff attracts a highly skilled workforce at favourable costs compared to London and its immediate surroundings. Excellent local transport links enable over a third of Cardiff’s labour pool to travel into the city each day from neighbouring cities and towns.

A cosmopolitan city, its large student population and strong cultural heritage brings a unique blend of vibrancy and diversity that inspires creativity. Technology and knowledge intensive industries now employ around 47,500 people in the city supported by the world-class research at the city-region’s universities.

The available labour pool is highly skilled and has a skill rating that is above the national average with 40% of Cardiff’s workforce qualified to degree or degree level equivalent.

Productivity is a key factor - the total economic output of Cardiff per job filled is above the UK average. Loyalty also ranks highly: a recent survey of the top 50 inward investors indicated average levels of workforce turnover were as low as 3.2% for all employees.

The training support network is excellently supported by the Welsh Assembly Government who is currently offering practical support to businesses to assist them through the downturn. Two such schemes are ReAct - worth £35 million – which will help over 12,000 redundant workers gain new employment or training and ProAct which will provide quality training for employees put on short-time working, before redundancies are considered.

The take-up of modern apprencticeships in Wales is double that in England and in support of this, the Welsh Assembly Government has announced it will be making a further £20m available for the creation of a package of measures to help sustain and encourage new apprenticeship recruitment.  The funding will also ensure there are opportunities available for those who want to acquire valuable knowledge and skills to support the Economy and gain employment.

Find out more about working in Cardiff here.