Chemicals and Fossil Fuels: Employment
(asked on 21st April 2026) - View Source
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many jobs have been lost in the last year in the oil, gas, petrochemicals, refining and general chemical sectors.
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Redwood
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
28 April 2026
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many jobs have been lost in the last year in the oil, gas, petrochemicals, refining and general chemical sectors (HL16637).
In December 2025, in the UK, there were an estimated 10,000 workforce jobs1 in the mining of coal and lignite; extraction of crude petrol/gas sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) divisions 05-06), a decrease of 2,000 compared with December 2024.
In December 2025, in the UK, there were an estimated 8,000 workforce jobs1 in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) division 19), a decrease of 2,000 compared with December 2024.
In December 2025, in the UK, there were 99,000 workforce jobs2 in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) division 20), an increase of 2,000 compared with December 2024.
A full time series of data can be found in Table 1. Please note that these data are not
seasonally adjusted.
Table 1: Number of workforce jobs3 in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and
semi-trailers sector, UK, not seasonally adjusted.
| Mining of coal and lignite; Extraction of crude petrol/gas | Manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products | Manufacture of chemicals and chemical products |
December 2024 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 97,000 |
March 2025 | 12,000 | 10,000 | 95,000 |
June 2025 | 11,000 | 9,000 | 93,000 |
September 2025 | 11,000 | 8,000 | 93,000 |
December 2025 | 10,000 | 8,000 | 99,000 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
These data are published quarterly in tables JOBS03: Employee jobs by industry4 and JOBS04: Self-employment jobs by industry5. The most recent data, up to December 2025, were published as part of our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: March 20266 bulletin, which was published on 19 March 2026.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
1Estimates of workforce jobs include employee jobs and self-employment jobs only, these estimates
exclude any government supported trainees in these sectors.
2 Estimates are presented to the nearest 1,000 and changes have been calculated on rounded
estimates.
3 Estimates of workforce jobs include employee jobs and self-employment jobs only, these estimates
exclude any government supported trainees in these sectors.
4https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/d
atasets/employeejobsbyindustryjobs03
5https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/d
atasets/selfemploymentjobsbyindustryjobs04
6https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/b
ulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/march2026