If you’re just starting out on a career as an electrician, then it can be daunting working out where to go. You need training, you need somewhere with local resources – and most of all, you need somewhere to work, and getting a job can be a difficult business.

A Town for Young Workers

New research from IronmongeryDirect looks into the different cities across the country to see which ones offer the best options for young trades workers. While Ipswich might not be able to match the raw numbers of courses and resources of many larger towns and cities, the competition is much less. For example, although Ipswich has only 52 positions listed as available for electricians on Indeed.co.uk compared to London’s 1295, it works out as 39 positions available for every 100,000 residents – while London’s is a paltry 15, suggesting much higher competition for the

role. Ipswich even outmatched both Sunderland and Plymouth when it came to the number of all trades positions available – 1020, compared to 774 and 325, respectively. This makes our Suffolk town a strong location if you’re trying to get your foot in the door in an industrial career.

Best Cities for Tradesmen

Although Ipswich scored well for a small town, across the country, certain towns stood out as the top locations for electricians. The top five were as follows:

1. Coventry – Coventry was the best in the country for electricians overall. It offered 60 more positions per 100,000 capita than Ipswich did, with 47 hardware providers, compared to 25 in Ipswich.
2. Chester – Chester had 208 job opportunities for electricians – 63 per 100,000 people – and 6 local training courses advertised on HotCourses, compared to only 1 for Ipswich.
3. Leicester – Leicester had the most number of courses advertised out of the top five, with 10 available for those looking to train as an electrician. It also had a low number of other electrical companies in the area (only 300, one of the best results in the country) meaning local competition for work is quite low.
4. Bradford – Bradford had an equal number of advertised training courses in the area to Ipswich, only 1 for electricians, but it had 60 jobs for every 100,000 people and also offered the highest number of local hardware suppliers in the country outside of London, with 170.
5. Wakefield – Wakefield was the UK’s best location for job opportunities, as it boasted 109 per 100,000 capita, though only 362 overall. Despite that, it only had two more local training courses advertised than Ipswich.

Ipswich may not have entered the top five, but it did outmatch seaside town Plymouth on not only the career positions mentioned previously, but also electrician-specific positions (52 in total compared to 30 – and 39 compared to 11 per 100,000 capita), and hardware providers, 25 compared to 23. And it matched the number of advertised local courses.

All in all, new electricians looking to get started with the early stages of their career – from training through to finding their first position – would find a strong option in Ipswich’s trades industry. We at Digital Dimensions provide local engineers throughout East Anglia and are always happy to assist electricians with advice and tips.