London is bubbling city for wine and spirits industry workers with the second highest employment growth in the UK
London is the second most bubbling city for workers in the UK's wine and spirits industry, new research has found.
Employment levels in the London wine and spirits field uncorked double digit growth of 16 per cent in 2015, according to data released by LinkedIn.
London's growth levels were behind only Glasgow, where employment rates grew by 17 per cent last year, while Bristol (9.2 per cent) and Edinburgh (four per cent) also saw sizeable rises.
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Across the UK as a whole, employee numbers in the wine and spirits trade grew by 1.7 per cent in 2015. In comparison, the number of employees in the restaurant industry shrank by 2.6 per cent last year.
In a study of more than 20,000 people in the UK's wine and spirits industry on LinkedIn, it was also revealed that one in 10 workers in the field graduated from university in the last three years. Around 6.9 per cent of those had a postgraduate qualification.
London registered high employment levels despite the fact that Scottish institutions provided the most graduates in the field. Geographically, Scotland leads the way in degree and higher-level training in the industry, being home to four of the top five schools generating new graduates in the industry.
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The University of Strathclyde, University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University and the University of Glasgow are among the top five universities producing talent for the industry.
Employees in the wine and spirits industry are also more active than average when it comes to job moves. Six per cent changed roles within the same company in the past year, compared to a UK average of four per cent.
Dan Dackombe, director of LinkedIn Talent Solutions commented:
This data goes to show there are no half measures when it comes to the UK wine and spirits industry. Traditional wine-producing markets like Australia and France saw faster growth, but the UK was comparable to the US and Italy, and outpaced growth in Argentina and Spain.
According to HM Revenue & Customs, the number of gin distilleries in the UK doubled in the past six years, with the UK wine industry growing by the same amount in the last 10, according to the Wine and Spirit Trade Association. Both these trends would account for the increasing demand for skills in the sector.