A boost for employment

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) Employment and Skills Strategy aimed to use the Olympic Games as an opportunity to help local people gain professional experience and enhance their careers.

The strategy targeted the six boroughs surrounding Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest – and, as a result, people from these areas were employed in Games-related jobs or participated as volunteers.

To help run the Olympic Games, 23.5 per cent of staff directly employed by LOCOG, and 21 per cent of contractors working in Games-time roles, were resident in one of the six host boroughs, while 6.5 per cent of the volunteers recruited from across the UK lived in these areas.

Post-Games, London 2012 continued to influence local employment. The London Mayor’s office reported in July 2017 that in the five years following the Games, 110,000 jobs had been created in the six boroughs surrounding Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, a rate of growth that was significantly faster than in the city as a whole, and more than three times the pace forecast in 2013.

By 2030, there is expected to be 125,000 additional jobs in the host boroughs, growing at an annual rate of 1 per cent – faster than the pace of growth for London as a whole. More than two million people are forecast to be living in the host boroughs, which is 170,000 more than the level projected in 2013, driven by strong net migration into the area.