In 2008, Sheffield ranked among the top 10 UK cities as a business location [1] and aims to regenerate itself as a modern technology and sports based city. Sheffield has an international reputation for metallurgy and steel-making. It was this industry that established it as one of England's main industrial cities during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. This industry used Sheffield's unique combination of local Iron, Coal and water power supplied by the local rivers. This fuelled a massive growth in the city's population that expanded from 60,995 in 1801 to a peak of 577,050 in 1951. However, due to increasing competition from imports, it has seen a decline in heavy engineering industries since the 1960s, which has forced the sector to streamline its operations and lay off the majority of the local employment. The steel industry now concentrates on more specialist steel-making and, in 2005, produced more steel per year by value than at any other time in its history. [2] The industry is now less noticeable as it has become highly automated and employs far fewer staff than in the past. However a small number of skilled industrial automation engineers still thrive in it. Today the economy is worth over £7 billion a year. [3]
The largest employers are now all public sector: the two universities, NHS, and national and local government employees. Private fee-paying international students are also a major source (£120 million per year) of income to the local economy through the universities.
The steel industry dates back to at least the 14th century. In 1740 Benjamin Huntsman discovered the crucible technique for steel manufacture, at his workshop in the district of Handsworth. This process had an enormous impact on the quantity and quality of steel production and was only made obsolete, a century later, in 1856 by Henry Bessemer's invention of the Bessemer converter which allowed the true mass production of steel. Bessemer had moved his Bessemer Steel Company to Sheffield to be at the heart of the industry. Thomas Boulsover invented Sheffield Plate (silver-plated copper), in the early 18th century. A major Sheffield steel invention was that of stainless steel by Harry Brearley in 1912, and the work of Profs. F. B. Pickering and T. Gladman throughout the 1960s, '70s, and '80s was fundamental to the development of modern high strength low alloy steels.
The Sheffield Assay Office, which opened in 1773, stamps precious metals with the city's crown mark. The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire was created in 1624 to regulate the manufacture of edged tools. The head of this company (the Master Cutler) is held in regard equal to the city's lord mayor and it has powers over the trademarking of steel with the Sheffield area.
While iron and steel have always been the main industries of Sheffield, coal mining has been a major feature of the outlying areas, and the Palace of Westminster in London was built using limestone and paving from quarries in the nearby villages of Anston and Green Moor.
The Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, a partnership between Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Hallam University and the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire has preserved key sites associated with the city's industrial heritage, some of which actually still operate ancient equipment for the public, such as the Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet and the Kelham Island Museum. Northwest of the city lies Wortley Top Forge, which was a heavy ironworks of international renown. It is a site of historical and industrial importance, contributing to Sheffield's reputation for manufacturing high-quality, precision steel goods, though actually it is located within the boundaries of neighbouring Barnsley.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added (GVA) of Sheffield at current basic prices published Archived 16 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine (pp. 240–253) by Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
Year | Regional Gross Value Added 4 | Agriculture 1 | Industry 2 | Services 3 |
---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | 4,971 | 9 | 1,579 | 3,383 |
2000 | 6,162 | 8 | 1,631 | 4,523 |
2003 | 7,280 | 9 | 1,778 | 5,494 |
^1 includes hunting and forestry
^2 includes energy and construction
^3 includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
^4 Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
Labour Profile [4] | ||
---|---|---|
Total employee jobs | 239,941 | |
Full-time | 156,407 | 65.2% |
Part-time | 83,533 | 34.8% |
Manufacturing | 33,568 | 14.0% |
Construction | 9,239 | 3.9% |
Services | 196,646 | 82.0% |
Distribution, hotels & restaurants | 57,924 | 24.1% |
Transport & communications | 11,575 | 4.8% |
Finance, IT, other business activities | 43,694 | 18.2% |
Public admin, education & health | 70,442 | 29.4% |
Other services | 13,011 | 5.4% |
Tourism-related | 18,146 | 7.6% |
The city spearheaded the knowledge advances which gave it preeminence in steel and cutlery production; today the transfer of technology from Sheffield's universities is claimed by some to be "guaranteeing" Sheffield's continuing industrial and commercial evolution, creating cutting-edge enterprises across the city.[ citation needed ] High technology businesses such as the US company Fluent, Inc., for example, have chosen Sheffield as the centre for their international operations and so has Jennic, specialists in semiconductor design for the home automation, commercial building automation, and industrial process monitoring and control markets. The University of Sheffield supports the growth of technology transfer in the Sheffield City Region through the Kroto Innovation Centre and Sheffield Bioincubator which house small and medium enterprises as well as startup companies working in similar areas, or occasionally alongside, University of Sheffield researchers.
Insight Enterprises will invest £50 million in a new European headquarters in the city resulting in 1700 jobs over the 2005-2008 period, while Boeing, through its collaboration with the University of Sheffield will be at the centre of an Advanced Manufacturing Park (AMP) on the edge of the city, home to a cluster of businesses in the advanced manufacturing sector. Other areas of employment include call centres, the City Council, universities and hospitals.
There are signs that the Sheffield economy is seeing a revival. The 2004 Barclays Bank Financial Planning study [5] revealed that, in 2003, the Sheffield district of Hallam was the highest ranking area outside London for overall wealth, the proportion of people earning over £60,000 a year standing at almost 12%. A survey by Knight Frank [6] revealed that Sheffield was the fastest growing city outside London for office and residential space and rents during the second half of 2004.
Cushman & Wakefield's respected Global Research Reports include the "UK Cities Monitor 2008" [1] which placed Sheffield among the top ten "best cities to locate a business today", and reported 3rd and 4th places respectively for best office location and best new call centre location. The same report places Sheffield in 3rd place regarding "greenest reputation" and 2nd in terms of the availability of financial incentives.
As an example of the city's move away from traditional industry, Sheffield is now the home to one of the country's fastest growing online job boards, My Job Group, whose HQ is based there and serves the city with its very own jobs board. This site competes strongly with the traditional way of finding employment in Sheffield which is through the local newspaper whose main vacancies day is Thursday. Technology is also one of the fastest growing industries in Sheffield being home to Capita, Plusnet and Littlefish.
Organised by the Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Sheffield Business Awards is an awards ceremony held on an annual basis to help highlight and promote business and industry in Sheffield and boost the economy of the city.
In 2012, Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone was launched to promote development in a number of sites in Sheffield and across the wider region. In March 2014 additional sites were added to the zone. [7]
The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass production of steel from molten pig iron before the development of the open hearth furnace. The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.
Sir Henry Bessemer was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years. He also played a significant role in establishing the town of Sheffield, nicknamed ‘Steel City’, as a major industrial centre.
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its southern suburbs were transferred from Derbyshire to the city council. It is the largest settlement in South Yorkshire.
Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) is a public research university in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The university is based on two sites; the City Campus is located in the city centre near Sheffield railway station, while the Collegiate Crescent Campus is about two miles away in the Broomhall Estate off Ecclesall Road in south-west Sheffield. A third campus at Brent Cross Town in the London Borough of Barnet is expected to open for the 2025–26 academic year.
Hallamshire is the historical name for an area of South Yorkshire, England, approximating to the current City of Sheffield local government area.
The economy of England is the largest economy of the four countries of the United Kingdom. England's economy is one of the largest and most dynamic in the world, with an average GDP per capita of £37,852 in 2022.
The Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire is a trade guild of metalworkers based in Sheffield, England. It was incorporated in 1624 by an act of Parliament. The head is called the Master Cutler. Its motto is French: Pour Y Parvenir a Bonne Foi, lit. 'To Succeed through Honest Endeavour'.
Sir John Brown, English industrialist, was born in Sheffield. He was known as the Father of the South Yorkshire Iron Trade.
The history of Sheffield, a city in South Yorkshire, England, can be traced back to the founding of a settlement in a clearing beside the River Sheaf in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. The area now known as Sheffield had seen human occupation since at least the last ice age, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the city did not occur until the Industrial Revolution.
The Master Cutler is the head of the Company of Cutlers in Hallamshire established in 1624. Their role is to act as an ambassador of industry in Sheffield, England. The Master Cutler is elected by the freemen of the company on the first Monday of September of each year and the position taken in the first Tuesday of October. Despite the title, the Master Cutler does not have to be involved in the cutlery business, or even the steel industry, to be elected.
This timeline of Sheffield history summarises key events in the history of Sheffield, a city in England. The origins of the city can be traced back to the founding of a settlement in a clearing beside the River Sheaf in the second half of the 1st millennium AD. The area had seen human occupation since at least the last ice age, but significant growth in the settlements that are now incorporated into the city did not occur until the industrial revolution.
The economy of Leeds is the most diverse economy of all the UK's main employment centres and has seen the fastest rate of private-sector jobs growth of any UK city and has the highest ratio of public to private sector jobs of all the UK's Core Cities. Leeds has the third-largest jobs total by local authority area with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015.
The economy of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is diversified, focused on services, medicine, higher education, tourism, banking, corporate headquarters and high technology. Once the center of the American steel industry, and still known as "The Steel City", today the city of Pittsburgh has no steel mills within its limits, though Pittsburgh-based companies such as US Steel, Ampco Pittsburgh and Allegheny Technologies own several working mills in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area.
Arthur Price is a Sheffield-based manufacturer of cutlery and silverware, originally established in Birmingham, England in 1902, and later moving to Sheffield. It opened a subsidiary plant again in Birmingham and by the 1950s was the biggest manufacturer of stainless steel cutlery in the country. By the 1990s the company had shifted towards provision, supply and branding, rather than manufacture, of cutlery. It has been owned and managed by five generations of the Price family.
Industry is 39.4% of China's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022. In 2007, industry contributed 46.7 percent of GDP in 2010 and occupied 27 percent of the workforce. In 2015, the manufacturing industrial sectors contributed to 40% of China's GDP. The manufacturing sector produced 44.1 percent of GDP in 2004 and accounted for 11.3 percent of total employment in 2006.
Pamela Edwards Liversidge was the first female president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
Maverick Technologies is an industrial automation, enterprise integration, operational consulting and sustaining services provider. The company has over 500 employees and 18 U.S. locations and operations worldwide and is the largest independent systems integrator in North America.
David James Richards is a British Silicon Valley entrepreneur and technology executive. He is the co-founder of WANdisco, an Anglo-American software company specialising in distributed computing.
Colonel Sir Frederick Austin Neill, CBE, DSO, TD, JP, DL was an English businessman, public administrator, local politician and soldier.