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St Nicholas, RawrethPhoto: Glyn Baker · CC BY-SA 2.0
–Not graded
Work & commute in Rawreth · ONS, DWP · claims to August 2026

Where Rawreth earns its living

Under 3 miles is the trip to work for 37% of commuters. Each working day 72 residents head out to work; 57 people arrive. The Jobs & income Grade leaves out Rawreth.

What stands out · In brief

The short version on work in Rawreth

A local job centre

196 jobs are based in Rawreth for 153 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Shops, building trades and education make up 37% of them. Jobs based here ↓

More benefit claims than most towns

The typical UK town: 2.7%; England and Wales: 4% so far in 2026. Claims across the Rochford 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.

Jobs based here

196 jobs, one in six in construction

1.3 for every working resident; the typical UK town has 0.7.

Share of jobs by industry England’s towns
Construction17%
Retail14%
Education12%
Professional, scientific and technical8%
Manufacturing7%
Health and social care6%
Mining, energy and water6%
Business administration and support6%
Motor trades5%
Wholesale5%

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 (137). 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 Rawreth (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).

Benefits over time

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

0%2%4%6%201520172019202120232025First lockdownCensus dayEngland & Wales 4%East 3.3%Rochford 2.3%
Rochford (council area)EastEngland and Wales

Rochford’s rate was about 1.4% in 2019, peaked at 5% 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
4.3%
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
10%
of 18 to 66s out of work through unemployment, sickness, disability or caring
IoD 2025
Income deprivation
21%
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 Rochford, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Rawreth’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

Each working day, more people leave Rawreth for work than come in

153 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 137 people worked in Rawreth.

Live in Rawreth153 in work
72576
Work in Rawreth137 people
57575
Commute in · 57Commute out · 72Live and work here · 5At home or no fixed place · 75

6% 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

Rawreth’s commuters work from Rayleigh to Tower Hamlets

Southend-on-Sea: 9 commute inRayleigh: 6 commute inBasildon: 5 commute inHockley and Hawkwell: 5 commute inSouthend-on-SeaRayleighBasildonRayleigh: 10 residents work thereSouthend-on-Sea: 8 residents work thereBasildon: 6 residents work thereWickford: 6 residents work thereTower Hamlets: 5 residents work thereBillericay: 5 residents work thereRayleighSouthend-on-SeaBasildonWickfordTower HamletsBillericayRawreth5 miles
Grey dots: where people live (Census 2021). Places drawn centre to centre; flows under 5 people are listed, not drawn.

94% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Rawreth; Rayleigh takes the most (10). Coming the other way, Southend-on-Sea sends the most (9).

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

Household income

An average of £64,887 a year per household in Rawreth

Higher than 80% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Rochford averages £61,066.

Rawreth £65KTypical UK town £52K
£50K£55K£60K£65K

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).

Getting to work

How Rawreth gets to work: 12% without a car

Median journey 7.6 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.

Drive79%Essex 69% · England 64%
Passenger5%Essex 5% · England 6%
Walk10%Essex 10% · England 11%
Cycle1%Essex 2% · England 3%
Bus0%Essex 3% · England 6%
Train1%Essex 6% · England 3%
Other4%Essex 5% · England 6%
RawrethEssex’s townsEngland’s towns
How far they travel England’s towns
8%
Under 2 km
29%
2–5 km
25%
5–10 km
18%
10–20 km
5%
20–30 km
4%
30–40 km
10%
40–60 km
1%
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).

What residents do

59% of Rawreth’s adults have a job

Rawreth
58%25%
England’s towns
56%21%
In workStudents in workUnemployedStudentsRetiredLong-term sick or disabledLooking after home or familyOther

Compared with England’s towns, 3% are full-time students (against 7%), 25% are retired (against 21%) and 2% are long-term sick or disabled (against 4%).

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

How the places next to Rawreth compare on work

TownPeopleJobsWork in own townClaimantsGrade
Rawreth3021966%4.3%—
Hullbridge5,7095516%2.7%B−
Wickford27,5339,56516%2.2%A−
Rayleigh32,3839,98418%2.2%A
Runwell8,0861,9434%3%B
South Woodham Ferrers16,0295,26525%1.9%A
Thundersley and South Benfleet49,88613,58221%1.9%A
North Benfleet1,7654843%5.2%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. Rawreth 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 Rochford as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Rawreth’s built-up area, from small areas.

Questions about work in Rawreth

Where do people in Rawreth work?

At the 2021 Census, 6% of Rawreth’s residents who travelled to work worked in the village itself; the most common other places were Rayleigh (10), Southend-on-Sea (8) and Basildon (6). 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 Rawreth?

57 people who lived elsewhere worked in Rawreth at the 2021 Census, 42% of its 137 workers. The most came from Southend-on-Sea (9), Rayleigh (6) and Basildon (5). 72 residents travelled out the other way.

How many jobs are there in Rawreth?

About 200 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Rawreth in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.3 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town.

How do people in Rawreth get to work?

84% of commuters go by car or van, 10% walk, 1% cycle and 1% take the bus or train; 37% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.

What is the average household income in Rawreth?

Mean household income before tax was £64,887 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town.

How does Rawreth compare with Southend-on-Sea for jobs?

Rawreth has 1.3 jobs per working resident against Southend-on-Sea’s 0.8, a 4.3% claimant rate against 4.3%, and mean household income of £64,887 against £56,031.

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.