Main Areas of Employment
The largest employers in the Falkirk area fall into 8 main categories:
Whilst these figures apply to employment as a whole, you can also view the Top 10 Occupational Areas for Young People| in the Falkirk area.
This covers mainly public sector work, although there may be some work to be found within private healthcare and private education. Public sector workers are employed by the government to deliver goods and services which are provided for the benefit of society as a whole, for example schools, hospitals, leisure centres, libraries and refuse collection. The variety of services is huge, which means there is a multitude of employment opportunities within this sector.
Examples of the types of job include Nurses, Social Workers, Teachers, Environmental Health Officers and Arts Development Officers to name but a few... more information|.
Most people think of someone serving behind a till when they picture jobs in shops and retailing. While this is an important part of the industry, there are also numerous 'behind the scenes' roles that help to keep the business going, for example buyers, stock room control, merchandising, operations management, human resources, administration and marketing.
Many hairdressing and beauty salons offer a wider range of services these days, with demand growing for complementary therapy treatments such as reflexology and aromatherapy. As such, beauty salons may need staff who are trained, or willing to undergo training, in giving a number of different treatment types... more information|.
The Falkirk area employs more people in manufacturing than the rest of Scotland. This is mainly due to the strength of the chemicals and petro-chemicals industry in Grangemouth, which has been established for 90 years. Grangemouth represents one third of the Scottish chemicals industry's turnover – that's around £3 billion of the total £9 billion turnover
However, it's not all chemicals. The Falkirk area has companies manufacturing a wide range of products from Alexander Dennis's green buses which are exported across... more information|.
Other
This category consists of a range of employment types which individually account for only a very small proportion of local jobs, yet when added together come to a total of 15% of Falkirk employment. It includes people working in electricity, gas and water supply; mining and quarrying; agriculture, hunting and forestry; community, social and personal service activities; public administration and defence and compulsory social security. As none of these by themselves are a major employer in the area we haven't provided any further information on the industries.
In addition to banks and financial companies, the Falkirk area also has a number of business parks, which ensure businesses in Falkirk have the ideal environment in which to start up and to grow. These parks host a range of companies from call centres such as HEROtsc to IT solutions such as Thom Micro Systems. Job roles include for example, accountants, technical support, customer service advisor in a call centre... more information|.
This industry covers a wide range of construction roles such as bricklayers, carpenters, plasterers and roofers, but also an equally large range of professional and technical roles such as architects, surveyors, town planners, structural engineers and so on... more information|.
The Falkirk area is ideally positioned for this industry. Grangemouth is home to Scotland's largest deep sea container port and has excellent road and rail connections.
Employment in this industry may involve working for public transport companies in bus and rail services, or for companies who help other businesses to distribute their products across the country. Goods are often shipped long distances in and out of ports like Grangemouth and long distances again over land by rail and lorry... more information|.
The opening of the Falkirk Wheel in 2002 kick-started a national awareness of Falkirk as a tourism destination. It currently attracts around 500,000 visitors a year, many of whom will be looking for somewhere to stay, somewhere to eat and other places to visit whilst they are here. Jobs in this sector include Tourism Information Assistants, tour guides, bar, restaurant and hotel staff.
Additionally, the Falkirk area is in close proximity to two international airports at Edinburgh and Glasgow, providing further opportunities for those who want to work in airline and travel agent roles... more information|.
Other Areas of Employment
Here are two areas of employment which are not covered in the above statistics, but still worthy of a mention:
Creative industries are not rated as one of the main areas of employment locally. However, we recognise that many creative jobs can become 'hidden' in industry statistics. For example, a construction company needs to employ people in creative roles such as a graphic designer or web designer, but these jobs are counted statistically as being employees of the construction industry. It is therefore worth bearing in mind that there are probably more jobs within the creative industries locally than the statistics give credit for.
Other examples of jobs in the creative industries include interior designer, photographer, public relations officer and marketing... more information|.
Another option for entering the world of work is to create your own employment. This can either involve you working on your own, perhaps from home as a self employed person, or setting up a business which also employs other people... more information.|