Cheltenham Employment Rate History
Cheltenham's employment, economic activity and unemployment rates year by year since 2004, sourced directly from the ONS's Nomis service.
- 81.7% employment rate, Jan to Dec 2025
- 85.5% economically active
- 22 years of data
Cheltenham Employment Rate History
This page shows the year-by-year history behind the current employment figures on our All About Cheltenham page — economic activity, employment and unemployment rates for Cheltenham residents aged 16-64, back to 2004. To see how employment and income vary between neighbourhoods, see our deprivation map. For jobs by industry, local businesses and benefit claimants, see the Cheltenham economy page, and for pay, our earnings history.
Employment Rates over Time
| Year | Economic Activity Rate | Employment Rate | Unemployment Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 81.5% | 77.1% | 5.3% |
| 2005 | 80.4% | 77.6% | 3.4% |
| 2006 | 78.9% | 76.2% | suppressed |
| 2007 | 84.0% | 80.3% | 4.4% |
| 2008 | 83.0% | 78.1% | suppressed |
| 2009 | 85.9% | 82.7% | suppressed |
| 2010 | 79.3% | 72.4% | 8.7% |
| 2011 | 81.9% | 77.0% | suppressed |
| 2012 | 78.9% | 74.0% | 6.2% |
| 2013 | 80.1% | 76.8% | suppressed |
| 2014 | 81.5% | 74.8% | 8.2% |
| 2015 | 75.4% | 73.8% | suppressed |
| 2016 | 83.0% | 79.8% | suppressed |
| 2017 | 86.2% | 84.6% | suppressed |
| 2018 | 82.7% | 81.2% | suppressed |
| 2019 | 87.6% | 84.3% | suppressed |
| 2020 | 78.4% | 77.1% | suppressed |
| 2021 | 84.2% | 80.6% | suppressed |
| 2022 | 86.3% | 85.4% | suppressed |
| 2023 | 86.2% | 82.9% | suppressed |
| 2024 | 78.9% | 78.2% | suppressed |
| 2025 | 85.5% | 81.7% | suppressed |
Full data last refreshed 2 October 2026 at 05:44.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Does the Rate Jump Around so Much Year to Year?
- These rates come from the Annual Population Survey, which estimates from a sample of residents rather than a full count. For a town the size of Cheltenham, that sample is small enough that year-to-year swings of several percentage points are normal statistical noise, not necessarily a real change in the local economy — look at the overall trend rather than any single year.
Why Is the Unemployment Rate Missing for Some Years?
- The ONS suppresses the unemployment rate for a given year when the underlying sample is too small to be statistically reliable at local authority level. This happens intermittently throughout the series, more often in recent years, and is normal — not specific to Cheltenham.
Where Does This Data Come From?
- Nomis, the Office for National Statistics' official service for labour market data, refreshed monthly. See our All About Cheltenham page for the current headline figures, population and Census 2021 statistics.
About This Data
Data from Office for National Statistics via Nomis, published under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Last updated 2 October 2026, checked monthly.