Photo: Mr Ignavy · CC BY-SA 2.0More people claim jobless benefits in Reading than in 90% of UK towns
Set against UK towns, the Jobs & income grade of Reading is B, #27 of 30 in Berkshire. The claimant rate is 4.2% of working-age residents, next to 2.7% in the typical UK town. 57% of residents who travel to work go less than 3 miles.
What the numbers say about work in Reading
A local job centre
142,113 jobs are based in Reading for 103,763 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Software and it services, shops and hospitals and health care make up 29% of them. Jobs based here ↓
Short journeys to work
Against 45% across England’s towns. 16% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s towns). Getting to work ↓
More benefit claims than most towns
The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Jobs and income in Reading earn B
Its four measures together rank it better than 65% of UK towns: #27 of 30 in Berkshire.
Its strongest measure is getting to jobs without a car; its weakest, the claimant rate.
How the grade works
Each input is ranked against every UK town of 1,000 or more (higher income and job access are better; fewer claimants and less employment deprivation are better), the four ranks are averaged, and the average is ranked again. A town needs three of the four.
142,113 jobs, one in six in information and communication
1.4 for every working resident; the typical UK town has 0.7.
BRES counts jobs, not people (a part-time job and a second job count once each), so it runs above the Census count of people working here (102,979). Small areas are shared out to the town by where their Census 2021 workers were based; kinds of work are BRES industry divisions (SIC 2007), rounded. England’s towns: all jobs in its built-up areas.
Jobs at workplaces in Reading (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
One way or another, 35% of Reading’s commuters skip the car
Median journey 4.3 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Reading grades A+ for walkability, the best in Berkshire: the share of commuters who walk, cycle or take public transport, against UK towns.
ONS Census 2021, TS061 (method of travel) and TS058 (distance, straight line from home to workplace), output areas summed. Census day fell in the third lockdown, so fewer people travelled than usual.
How residents who travel to work get there, and how far they go (Census 2021, not counting those working mainly at home).
Jobless claims in the Reading council area are above England and Wales’ rate
Reading’s rate was about 2.3% in 2019, peaked at 6% in February 2021 and has averaged 4.3% in 2026, against 4% across England and Wales. Claims everywhere stay higher than before the pandemic, partly because Universal Credit counts more people on low pay as looking for work.
The chart is the whole council area of Reading, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Reading’s built-up area. Claimant count: people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance, or Universal Credit while required to look for work. Employment deprivation counts people out of work on Jobseeker’s Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance, Carer’s Allowance or the Universal Credit equivalents (English Indices of Deprivation 2025). The “most deprived tenth” compares areas within England only.
Claimant rate since 2015: people claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance or Universal Credit while looking for work, as a share of residents aged 16 to 64 (DWP, via Nomis).
About as many people come in to work in Reading as leave
103,763 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 102,979 people worked in Reading.
The middle of each bar is the same people: residents who work in the city or from home.
Reading’s commuters work from Wokingham to Newbury
- Caversham2,381
- Woodley1,739
- Wokingham1,248
- Countryside1,141
- Bracknell985
- Basingstoke752
- Slough675
- Thatcham598
- Newbury579
- Spencers Wood and Three Mile Cross519
43% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Reading; Wokingham takes the most (1,341). Coming the other way, Caversham sends the most (2,381).
The ten places that send the most workers into Reading, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.
Household income in Reading averages £64,118
Higher than 79% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Reading averages £62,419.
The town figure is ONS’s neighbourhood (MSOA) estimates shared out by where the town’s residents live.
Total household income before tax, mean, year to March 2023 (ONS small-area estimates).
From £53K to £87K: household incomes within Reading
Mean household income before tax in each of the 23 neighbourhoods (MSOAs) mostly inside the city: the highest is 1.6 times the lowest.
Each dot is a neighbourhood (MSOA, about 8,000 people) mostly inside Reading; names from the House of Commons Library. ONS gives each a 95% range of roughly ±£7K to ±£10K, so neighbourhoods close together on the strip may not really differ.
What adults in Reading do: 63% are in work
ONS Census 2021, tables TS066 (economic activity) and TS063 (occupation), output areas summed to the built-up area. England’s towns: everyone living in its built-up areas.
Everyone 16 and over, by what they were doing the week before the 2021 Census, and the jobs of those in work.
11th of 42: where Reading ranks among UK towns of 143,000 to 275,000
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cambridge Cambridgeshire | 152,742 | 1.6 | 70% | 2.1% | £71K | A |
| 2 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 0.9 | 35% | 2.5% | £102K | A |
| 3 | Oxford Oxfordshire | 170,799 | 1.7 | 76% | 2.6% | £65K | A |
| … | |||||||
| 9 | Harrow London | 260,534 | 0.6 | 25% | 4.9% | £78K | B+ |
| 10 | Havering London | 259,401 | 0.7 | 37% | 4.7% | £75K | B+ |
| 11 | Reading Berkshire | 203,789 | 1.4 | 57% | 4.2% | £64K | B |
| 12 | Hammersmith and Fulham London | 182,187 | 1.5 | 27% | 4.9% | £75K | B |
| 13 | Westminster London | 203,571 | 8.3 | 42% | 4.2% | £73K | B |
| … | |||||||
| 20 | Slough Berkshire | 166,868 | 1 | 45% | 6.1% | £59K | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 42 | Blackpool Lancashire | 149,087 | 1.1 | 68% | 5.8% | £36K | D |
Jobs & income letters rank against every UK town of 1,000 or more; the order here is context only.
Ordered by Jobs & income Grade: the top three, the towns either side of Reading, and others in Berkshire.
The work picture around Reading
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 203,789 | 142,113 | 57% | 4.2% | B |
| Caversham | 33,038 | 6,025 | 19% | 2.3% | A+ |
| Shinfield | 5,417 | 1,125 | 6% | 2.1% | A+ |
| Spencers Wood and Three Mile Cross | 7,612 | 3,241 | 4% | 2% | A+ |
| Sonning | 1,615 | 5,000 | 5% | 1.3% | A+ |
| Woodley | 28,019 | 5,778 | 16% | 2.3% | A |
| Theale | 3,053 | 17,500 | 14% | 2.9% | A− |
| Winnersh | 8,904 | 13,466 | 8% | 2.3% | A+ |
Jobs based in each place, commuters who stay in their own town, and the claimant rate.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- The Census was taken in lockdown. Census day was 21 March 2021, during the third national lockdown: many people were furloughed or working from home, so fewer travelled to work, and journeys were shorter, than before the pandemic or since. The flows on this page show where people worked that spring.
- At home and no fixed place are one figure. In the workplace flows, ONS puts people who mainly worked at home and people with no fixed workplace (drivers, builders, care workers on rounds) at their home address, so the two can’t be told apart there.
- Towns are built-up areas. Reading here is ONS’s built-up area: the town as built, not its council district. A workplace on an estate or farm outside every built-up area counts as “outside any built-up area”.
- Jobs are counted where they are. BRES counts jobs at each workplace (employees and working owners, rounded by ONS), so a town with a hospital, university or big employer can have more jobs than working residents. Small areas are shared out to towns by where their Census workers were based.
- The benefits chart is the council area. Nomis publishes the claimant count monthly for councils back to 2013, so the line is Reading as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Reading’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Reading
Where do people in Reading work?
At the 2021 Census, 57% of Reading’s residents who travelled to work worked in the city itself; the most common other places were Wokingham (1,341), Caversham (1,005) and Bracknell (986). 51% of working residents worked mainly at home or had no fixed workplace; the Census was taken in lockdown, so home working was unusually high.
How many people commute into Reading?
21,368 people who lived elsewhere worked in Reading at the 2021 Census, 21% of its 102,979 workers. The most came from Caversham (2,381), Woodley (1,739) and Wokingham (1,248). 21,899 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Reading?
About 142,100 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Reading in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.4 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are software and it services (about 17,200), shops (about 12,700) and hospitals and health care (about 12,250).
Is Reading a good place to find work?
Reading earns a B for jobs and income, better than 65% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £64,118; 4.2% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Reading get to work?
62% of commuters go by car or van, 16% walk, 4% cycle and 15% take the bus or train; 57% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Reading?
Mean household income before tax was £64,118 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £53,030 in Southcote to £87,127 in Lower Earley North.
How does Reading compare with Slough for jobs?
Reading has 1.4 jobs per working resident against Slough’s 1, a 4.2% claimant rate against 6.1%, and mean household income of £64,118 against £59,294.
Sources: ONS Census 2021 origin-destination data, place of work (ODWP01EW), output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · ONS Census 2021 tables TS058 (distance), TS061 (method of travel), TS063 (occupation) and TS066 (economic activity) · ONS Business Register and Employment Survey via Nomis (open access), by industry division · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); House of Commons Library MSOA names · DWP claimant count via Nomis (towns January to August 2026; councils, regions and England and Wales monthly since January 2015) · MHCLG English Indices of Deprivation 2025 · DfT Transport Connectivity Metric (employment) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.