With Britain being an island nation shipping is at the heart of the UK economy supporting 10,000s of jobs and generating billions of pounds of revenue.

95% of goods imported into the UK arrive by ship

Every single person in the UK seven days a week will use and consume goods that have been brought to the UK by ship. Manufacturers rely on shipping to import raw materials and supplies and ultimately to export their products too. 

Elsewhere supermarkets rely on shipping to ensure their shelves are fully stock as part of just in time supply chains and hospitals need shipping to bring medicines and other equipment they need, including vaccines. 

Directly provides over 160,000 jobs of which 60,000 are UK based and supports 100,000s more

There are a wide range of roles in the shipping sector and while working at sea may be the most obvious you can also be working shoreside perhaps in a port or even in somewhere like the City of London.  Working in shipping is exciting, unique and rewarding. 

Generates almost £1bn in tax revenue for the Government to invest and contributes almost £7bn directly to the UK economy

Shipping is an important contributor to the UK economy. With the tax revenue paid by shipping in the UK you could: 

  • Employ around 19,000 GPs
  • Hire 27,000 secondary school teachers
  • Give free school meals to around 2.5m children. 
  • Build approximately 16,600 new social homes or 50,000 shared ownership homes

You can find out more about the benefits of shipping to the UK here.