A survey compiled for the British Cleaning Council (BCC) by market researcher Firedog Research shows that the cleaning industry contributes more than £24 billion into the UK economy, and is also one of the biggest employees of people, with over 70,000 actively working within the sector.
Wage growth is also higher than the national average, with a growth of 6.5 per cent compared to the national average of 2.3 per cent.
New businesses increased from 4,380 to 4,910 between 2015 and 2016, along with turnover – up by 21 per cent since 2010. Businesses that ceased trading rose from 3,600 to 3,725 between 2014 – 2015, an increase of 3 per cent. However, this figure is much lower than that of national average for companies going out of business, at 9.4 per cent.
Currently, workers across the cleaning industry have lower levels of qualifications than those in other sectors, with a third of the workforce without a BIFM Level 2. However, the latest Working Future Projections shows that there will be a move towards staff holding higher qualifications going forward, with 50 per cent expected to be qualified at Level 4 and above and a fall of four per cent of those people holding no formal qualifications.
Simon Hollingbery, British Cleaning Council Chairman said: “There’s very encouraging signs in the turnover and growth figures, and we need to keep working hard to make sure people in the industry get those higher qualifications.”
