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Work in Oxfordshire
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About Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is the most rural county in the South East region and has the region’s lowest population density. Its natural attractions include the Chilterns, the North Wessex Downs, the Cherwell Valley and the Cotswolds, while its historic market towns and the architectural delights of the city of Oxford make the county a popular tourist destination and a sought-after film and TV location. Although the county has a prosperous image there are pockets of severe deprivation within the city of Oxford.
The county has an international reputation as a centre of excellence for higher education, research and innovation and a designated European Centre for Culture. Located at the north-western edge of the South East region, Oxfordshire has strong links to London and the Midlands, as well as west to the Cotswolds and along the M4 corridor. By road Oxfordshire is 55 miles from London, 68 miles from Birmingham, and within easy reach of London Heathrow Airport.
It is part of the Oxford to Cambridge (O2C) Arc which aims to promote high technology growth, in the area between the two university towns. Buckinghamshire is enhancing its already strong economy by attracting even more high-tech companies.
The Economy
Over recent years Oxfordshire has enjoyed sustained continued growth and stability. Oxfordshire is recognised as an economic powerhouse - regionally, nationally and internationally - with its concentration of research and development (7.9 per cent of the workforce compared with 2.9 per cent for the South East region generally) in a triangle of universities, hospitals and medical research leading to high technology spin offs, and the Diamond Synchrotron on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.
The county’s economy is diverse across a range of sectors. The most important are printing and publishing (the county has the largest concentration of companies in this sector in the UK outside London), education (in Oxford City one in five employees work in this sector), health (health and social work sector employs 10 per cent of the county’s workforce) and high tech industries (see below). Oxfordshire is also at the heart of ‘Motorsport Valley’ (home to a cluster of high performance engineering and motorsport companies) and car manufacturing, which has a long history in Oxford, remains important to the Oxfordshire economy through the BMW plant at Cowley (global centre for Mini production).
Oxfordshire falls within the Thames Valley region, an area known for its blue-chip technology, telecommunications and pharmaceutical companies and high volume of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and innovation companies. It is also part of the Oxford to Cambridge Arc (O2C) set up to create (in an area between, and including, the two university cities) an ‘arc’ of innovation and entrepreneurial activity.
The education sector is central to the Oxfordshire economy employing 11 per cent of the work force (over 33,000 people). Much of this employment is centered on the county’s four universities (University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, and parts of both the Open University and Cranfield University). Oxfordshire County Council’s county profile also highlights the economic influence of the University of Oxford, which has spread beyond higher education to include publishing and printing (e.g. Oxford University Press), research and development (University spin-out companies), and the supporting service sector.
Tourism also makes an important economic contribution. The city of Oxford is the UK’s sixth most-visited city by international visitors and a major tourist destination. More than 7.8 million visitors spend over £410 million annually. Oxfordshire has high levels of employment and the resident workforce is amongst the most highly qualified in the country. Small businesses are a significant feature of the economy - over three quarters of Oxfordshire firms employ fewer than 10 people, although a third of all employees in the county work for the 1 per cent of employers with over 200 employees. The public sector is a major employer and seven of the ten largest employers in Central Oxfordshire are based in Oxford.
Major employers
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The most important employment sectors in Oxfordshire are printing and publishing, education, health, high tech industries, car manufacturing and motorsport.
Business clusters in the county include motorsport, multimedia, IT and software, biotechnology, medical research and healthcare, advanced materials and aerospace, opto-electronics, nanotechnology, publishing and creative media, tourism, environmental-related technologies, and diagnostics.
Oxfordshire’s strength in the high-tech sectors has been attributed to the county’s mix of “local entrepreneurs and their firms, the research and development ‘seedbed’ and the network of supportive organisations”. Ingredients in this mix include:
- University of Oxford with its science parks and own technology transfer company (Isis Innovation)
- Oxford Brookes University with strengths in bioscience and automotive engineering
- The teaching and research hospitals (within Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals Trust and also Nuffield) - medical, biotech and pharmaceutical research
- Government laboratories and research companies (e.g. AEA Technology plc, Diamond Light Source, Health Protection Agency, Medical Research Council, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory), many of which are based at the Harwell Science & Innovation campus, a world-leading centre of technological and scientific research.
- Organisations such as the Oxford Trust (now Science Oxford) and Oxford Innovation which facilitate technology transfer and business incubation
There are few very large employers in the county. International companies in Oxfordshire include BMW (UK) Manufacturing Ltd (see below), Sharp Laboratories of Europe, Siemens Magnet Technology, and Evotec UK Ltd (research into novel small molecule drugs). Major empooyment sectors include:
- Printing and publishing: e.g. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Elsevier Science Ltd, Harcourt Education Ltd, Macmillan, Oxford University Press
- Automotive and motorsports engineering: BMW (UK) Manufacturing Ltd, Unipart Group (logistics, automotive parts and accessories companies), and the ‘Motor Sport Valley’ cluster that includes e.g. Williams Formula 1, Renault Formula 1, Benetton and Pro-Drive, Unipart Group
- High tech: This sector includes both services and manufacturing e.g. computer services, technical consultancy and testing; instruments, medical and optical equipment (largest manufacturing sector); biotech/pharmaceuticals. Key locations include Begbroke Business and Science Park, Culham Science Centre, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Milton Park, Oxford Business Park and Oxford Science Park.
- Healthcare : The Churchill and John Radcliffe hospitals are a major centre for healthcare research, housing departments of Oxford University’s Clinical School and Oxford Brookes University’s School of Healthcare Studies
- Logistics and distribution : Companies include Unipart Logistics, PSB Logistics, Excel Logistics, Oxford Logistics
- Food: Kraft Foods has a major manufacturing and distribution location at Banbury
In the public sector major employers are Oxfordshire County Council; a range of educational institutions including the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, the healthcare trust, and a range of government research laboratories (e.g. Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Health Protection Agency, Medical Research Council). The armed forces are the largest employer in the county with 30,000 military personnel at bases in Bicester, Abingdon, Benson, Brize Norton, Shrivenham and Didcot.
The city of Oxford is central to the county’s economy. Other major towns and centres of employment and retail activities include Banbury (strong manufacturing sector), Bicester (fast growing technology and service sectors), Didcot (service industries and distribution), Witney.
Local authorities in Oxfordshire include Oxfordshire County Council, Cherwell District Council, Oxford City Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, Vale of White Horse District Council, WestOxfordshire District Council.
Higher education institutions within the county include the University of Oxford ,Oxford Brookes Universityand the Open University
