Voluntary sector workforce

The voluntary sector is a major employer in the UK, contributing 2.8% of the overall workforce. The number of people employed in paid roles in the voluntary sector is more than 827,000 – more than two and a half times the number employed by the UK's largest supermarket chain, and over half the number working for the NHS.

Apart from a small dip in 2010, this workforce has been steadily rising since 2002. This shows the voluntary sector to be an increasingly promising area for employment and career prospects.

Around two-thirds of the voluntary sector workforce are women, which is a similar gender ratio to the public sector but in stark contrast to the proportion of women employed in the private sector, which is just over a third. Voluntary sector employees are on average slightly older than those in other sectors, with almost two in five paid staff aged 50 and over. Almost two-fifths of the sector’s workforce work part-time, which is higher than in the public but less than the private sector.

Voluntary sector employees are mainly concentrated in small workplaces. Almost 60% of voluntary sector workers are in organisations of less than 50 employees, which is much higher than both the public and the private sectors. One-third of voluntary sector workers live in London or the South-East, reflecting the geographic distribution of voluntary sector organisations more generally.

Even though the voluntary sector employs a significant number of people, a lot of its power and impact comes from the work of volunteers. In 2016/17 around 11.9 million people (22% of the population) volunteered at least once a month and an even greater number, around 37% of all adults aged 16 and over, reported volunteering formally at least once in the previous year. This power is equivalent to 1.4 million full time employees to do the job, at an estimated value to the sector of over £22.6 billion per year.