Photo: Roger D Kidd · CC BY-SA 2.0Claims for jobless benefits put Wolverhampton near the very top of UK towns
7% of working-age residents claim jobless benefits, next to 2.7% in the typical UK town. UK towns are the yardstick, and by them Wolverhampton earns C− on jobs and income, #24 of 35 in West Midlands. Under 3 miles is the trip to work for 48% of commuters.
The short version on work in Wolverhampton
More jobs than the typical town
105,054 jobs are based in Wolverhampton for 99,091 working residents; the typical UK town has 0.7 jobs per resident in work. Hospitals and health care, education and shops make up 32% 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. Benefits over time ↓
Written from the data on this page: ONS Census 2021 and BRES, DWP claimant counts via Nomis, and ONS household income.
Wolverhampton earns C− for jobs and income
Taken together, its four measures make it better than 21% of UK towns: #24 of 35 in West Midlands.
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.
105,054 jobs, 22% in health and social care
1.1 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 (96,883). 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 Wolverhampton (employees and working owners, ONS Business Register and Employment Survey 2024).
Jobless claims in the Wolverhampton council area have run above England and Wales every month since 2015
Wolverhampton’s rate was about 5.7% in 2019, peaked at 10.6% in March 2021 and has averaged 6.7% 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 Wolverhampton, which Nomis publishes monthly; the figures above the line are for Wolverhampton’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 commute in and out of Wolverhampton balances out
99,091 residents were in work at the 2021 Census; 96,883 people worked in Wolverhampton.
The middle of each bar is the same people: residents who work in the city or from home.
Wolverhampton’s commuters work from Birmingham to Telford
- Bilston2,755
- Willenhall2,166
- Birmingham1,924
- Countryside1,386
- Sedgley1,246
- Telford1,166
- Coseley1,133
- Codsall1,002
- Cannock959
- Perton946
- Birmingham3,560
- Bilston2,876
- Countryside2,276
- Willenhall2,112
- Telford1,902
- Dudley1,635
- West Bromwich1,461
- Walsall1,366
- Featherstone779
- Tipton757
52% of residents who travel to a workplace work outside Wolverhampton; Birmingham takes the most (3,560). Coming the other way, Bilston sends the most (2,755).
The ten places that send the most workers into Wolverhampton, 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 Wolverhampton averages £45,248
Higher than 25% of UK towns of 2,500+; the typical town is £52,385. The whole council area of Wolverhampton averages £44,708.
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).
In Wolverhampton, household incomes run from £36K to £58K from one neighbourhood to the next
Mean household income before tax in each of the 29 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 Wolverhampton; 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.
One way or another, 20% of Wolverhampton’s commuters skip the car
Median journey 5.4 km; typical UK town 8.4 km.
Wolverhampton grades A− for walkability: 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).
What adults in Wolverhampton do: 53% 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.
42nd of 47: where Wolverhampton ranks among UK towns of 164,000 to 316,000
| # | Town | People | Jobs per worker | Work in own town | Claimants | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richmond upon Thames London | 192,888 | 0.9 | 35% | 2.5% | £102K | A |
| 2 | Oxford Oxfordshire | 170,799 | 1.7 | 76% | 2.6% | £65K | A |
| 3 | Kingston upon Thames London | 166,333 | 0.9 | 39% | 3.3% | £91K | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 40 | Derby Derbyshire | 275,561 | 1.1 | 64% | 5% | £49K | C |
| 41 | Nottingham Nottinghamshire | 299,786 | 1.8 | 61% | 6.2% | £46K | C− |
| 42 | Wolverhampton West Midlands | 234,029 | 1.1 | 48% | 7% | £45K | C− |
| 43 | Swansea West Glamorgan | 170,090 | 1.3 | 65% | 3.9% | £44K | C− |
| 44 | Bolton Greater Manchester | 184,077 | 0.9 | 44% | 6.3% | £42K | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 47 | Stoke-on-Trent Staffordshire | 260,560 | 1.1 | 64% | 5.5% | £41K | 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 Wolverhampton, and others in West Midlands.
Work next door to Wolverhampton
| Town | People | Jobs | Work in own town | Claimants | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wolverhampton | 234,029 | 105,054 | 48% | 7% | C− |
| Bilston | 34,631 | 13,537 | 14% | 7.1% | D |
| Perton | 9,302 | 1,153 | 8% | 3% | B− |
| Willenhall | 49,582 | 13,689 | 18% | 5.6% | C− |
| Coseley | 25,206 | 3,088 | 6% | 4.5% | C− |
| Essington | 3,471 | 586 | 4% | 4.2% | C− |
| Featherstone | 7,096 | 3,647 | 13% | 2.9% | C |
| Codsall | 11,867 | 2,898 | 11% | 3% | B− |
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. Wolverhampton 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 Wolverhampton as a whole; the claimant rate elsewhere on this page is Wolverhampton’s built-up area, from small areas.
Questions about work in Wolverhampton
Where do people in Wolverhampton work?
At the 2021 Census, 48% of Wolverhampton’s residents who travelled to work worked in the city itself; the most common other places were Birmingham (3,560), Bilston (2,876) and Willenhall (2,112). 34% 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 Wolverhampton?
31,673 people who lived elsewhere worked in Wolverhampton at the 2021 Census, 33% of its 96,883 workers. The most came from Bilston (2,755), Willenhall (2,166) and Birmingham (1,924). 33,685 residents travelled out the other way.
How many jobs are there in Wolverhampton?
About 105,050 jobs (employees and working owners) were based in Wolverhampton in 2024, on ONS’s Business Register and Employment Survey: 1.1 for every resident in work, against 0.7 in the typical UK town. The biggest kinds of work are hospitals and health care (about 16,300), education (about 9,880) and shops (about 7,640).
Is Wolverhampton a good place to find work?
Wolverhampton earns a C− for jobs and income, better than 21% of UK towns on household income, the claimant rate, employment deprivation and access to jobs together. Mean household income £45,248; 7% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits.
How do people in Wolverhampton get to work?
75% of commuters go by car or van, 9% walk, 2% cycle and 10% take the bus or train; 48% travel under 5 km. Census 2021, taken during lockdown.
What is the average household income in Wolverhampton?
Mean household income before tax was £45,248 in the year to March 2023 (ONS), against £52,385 in the typical UK town. By neighbourhood it runs from £36,481 in Wolverhampton Central to £57,868 in Compton & Merryhill North.
How does Wolverhampton compare with Birmingham for jobs?
Wolverhampton has 1.1 jobs per working resident against Birmingham’s 1.3, a 7% claimant rate against 11%, and mean household income of £45,248 against £45,929.
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.