Leeds is the major employment centre for Yorkshire and the Humber, and has been the key growth area in the region for the last 20 years. Leeds has a workforce of 442,400, of whom around 404,000 are employees and 38,400 are self-employed.
Between 1984 and 2003, the number of jobs in Leeds grew by 91,000, a net increase of 30% - more than any of the other core cities, where the average growth was only 8%. Leeds accounted for almost a quarter of the 371,000 new jobs created in the Yorkshire and Humber region during this period.
In the next ten years, total employment in Leeds is projected to grow by 7.1%, creating an additional 31,600 jobs. This will account for 45% of the 70,000 predicted additional jobs across the Yorkshire and Humber region, with half of the new jobs forecast to be within the burgeoning financial and business sectors.