Guest, Sign inJoin
The Top of High Street, YetminsterPhoto: Mike Smith · CC BY-SA 2.0
–Not graded
Work & commute in Yetminster · ONS, DWP · claims to August 2026

Yetminster has fewer jobs than residents in work: 0.5 for each

Every working day, 167 residents go out to work, and 95 people travel in. 13% of commuters travel less than 3 miles. There is no Jobs & income Grade for Yetminster.

What stands out · In brief

The work figures that set Yetminster apart

Longer journeys to work

Against 45% across England’s towns. 8% of commuters walk to work (11% across England’s towns). Getting to work ↓

Fewer benefit claims than most towns

The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Claims across the Dorset council area have run below the national rate every month since 2015. Benefits over time ↓

Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.

Getting to work

10% of people travelling to work from Yetminster walk, cycle or take the bus or train

Median journey 9.6 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.

Drive85%Dorset 71% · England 64%
Passenger2%Dorset 5% · England 6%
Walk8%Dorset 13% · England 11%
Cycle0.4%Dorset 4% · England 3%
Bus0%Dorset 4% · England 6%
Train1%Dorset 1% · England 3%
Other3%Dorset 3% · England 6%
YetminsterDorset’s townsEngland’s towns
How far they travel England’s towns
7%
Under 2 km
5%
2–5 km
41%
5–10 km
8%
10–20 km
21%
20–30 km
4%
30–40 km
6%
40–60 km
8%
60 km +

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).

Benefits over time

Jobless claims in the Dorset council area have run below England and Wales every month since 2015

0%2%4%6%201520172019202120232025First lockdownCensus dayEngland & Wales 4%South West 2.7%Dorset 2.3%
Dorset (council area)South WestEngland and Wales

Dorset’s rate was about 1.6% in 2019, peaked at 4.7% in May 2020 and has averaged 2.3% 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.

Claimant rate
1.9%
of 16 to 64s in the built-up area, January to August 2026
8 people in August 2026 · typical UK town 2.7%
Employment deprivation
9.1%
of 18 to 66s out of work through unemployment, sickness, disability or caring
IoD 2025
Income deprivation
15%
of residents in low-income households on means-tested benefits
In the most deprived tenth
0%
of residents live in England’s most employment-deprived 10% of areas

The chart is the whole council area of Dorset, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Yetminster’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).

The daily tide

More of Yetminster’s workers leave each day than arrive

352 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 280 people worked in Yetminster.

Live in Yetminster352 in work
16713172
Work in Yetminster280 people
9513172
Commute in · 95Commute out · 167Live and work here · 13At home or no fixed place · 172

For every person who comes in to work, about 2 residents travel out. 7% of residents who travel to a workplace stay in the village; in the typical UK town of 2,500+ it’s 14%.

The middle of each bar is the same people: residents who work in the village or from home.

On the map

Yetminster’s commuters work from Yeovil to Dorchester

Yeovil: 16 commute inSherborne: 16 commute inThornford: 7 commute inYeovil: 42 residents work thereSherborne: 24 residents work thereDorchester: 17 residents work thereGillingham: 6 residents work thereWeymouth: 5 residents work therePoole: 5 residents work thereBridport: 5 residents work thereDorchesterGillinghamWeymouthPooleBridportYetminster5 miles
Grey dots: where people live (Census 2021). Places drawn centre to centre; flows under 5 people are listed, not drawn.
Where residents work, outside Yetminster
  1. Yeovil42
  2. Sherborne24
  3. Countryside21
  4. Dorchester17
  5. Gillingham6
  6. Weymouth5
  7. Poole5
  8. Bridport5
  9. Yeovilton4
  10. Wincanton4

93% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Yetminster; Yeovil takes the most (42). Coming the other way, Yeovil sends the most (16).

The ten places that send the most workers into Yetminster, and the ten where its residents most often work (Census 2021, by home and workplace). Line width is the number of people.

Jobs based here

189 jobs, one in seven in manufacturing

Share of jobs by industry England’s towns
Manufacturing15%
Property15%
Retail13%
Education13%
Construction7%
Professional, scientific and technical6%
Wholesale6%
Hotels, pubs and restaurants6%
Business administration and support4%
Health and social care4%

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 (280). 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 Yetminster (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).

Household income

Yetminster households bring in £53,525 a year on average

Higher than 53% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Dorset averages £52,418.

Yetminster £54KTypical UK town £52K
£45K£50K£55K£60K

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).

What residents do

40% of adults in Yetminster are retired

Yetminster
46%40%
England’s towns
56%21%
In workStudents in workUnemployedStudentsRetiredLong-term sick or disabledLooking after home or familyOther
Residents in work, by occupation points above or below England’s towns
Managers, directors and senior officials12%−0.9
Professional occupations23%+3.1
Associate professional and technical occupations11%−2
Administrative and secretarial occupations8%−1.2
Skilled trades occupations16%+6.2
Caring, leisure and other service occupations10%+0.2
Sales and customer service occupations9%+1.1
Process, plant and machine operatives4%−2.7
Elementary occupations7%−3.7

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.

Neighbours

The work picture around Yetminster

TownPeopleJobsWork in own townClaimantsGrade
Yetminster8871897%1.9%—
Barwick and Stoford1,095502%3.7%C−
Yeovil50,17029,93060%3%C+
Sherborne10,3595,24540%2.6%C
Milborne Port3,20750010%2.2%C+
Maiden Newton1,1281979%2.3%C
Misterton1,0372684%1.2%B−
Stoke sub Hamdon1,3602975%1.9%C+

Jobs based in each place, commuters who stay in their own town, and the claimant rate.

How to read these numbers

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. Yetminster 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 Dorset as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Yetminster’s built-up area, from small areas.

Questions about work in Yetminster

Where do people in Yetminster work?

At the 2021 Census, 7% of Yetminster’s residents who travelled to work worked in the village itself; the most common other places were Yeovil (42), Sherborne (24) and Dorchester (17). 49% 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 Yetminster?

95 people who lived elsewhere worked in Yetminster at the 2021 Census, 34% of its 280 workers. The most came from Yeovil (16), Sherborne (16) and Thornford (7). 167 residents travelled out the other way.

How many jobs are there in Yetminster?

About 190 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Yetminster in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 0.5 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town.

How do people in Yetminster get to work?

87% of commuters go by car or van, 8% walk, 0% cycle and 1% take the bus or train; 13% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.

What is the average household income in Yetminster?

Mean household income before tax was £53,525 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.

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.