Crawley gained graduates. A net outflow of 16 to 21 year olds, many of which left to go to university, was followed by net inflow of 22 to 30 year old degree holders. Although only a small proportion of those students who had left returned to Crawley, the city attracted a significant number of new graduates for work with no prior links to the city. This resulted in a net gain of 920 graduates.
The city attracted new graduates from the Greater South East. The largest share of the new graduates working in Crawley had no prior links to the city, and this is higher than other cities without a university. Two thirds of these new graduates came from the rest of the Greater South East. This indicates that Crawley is an attractive place to work within this economically successful region.
Its strong private sector facilitated this. Crawley had the lowest share of new graduates working in the public sector and the largest share of new graduates working in Logistics and Communications of all UK cities. Its large private sector is likely to be a strong contributing factor to Crawley’s success in attracting many graduates for work.
