Official Statistics

Offender employment outcomes - statistical summary

Published 31 July 2025

Applies to England and Wales

1. Introduction

This summary presents the main findings from the most recent ‘Offender employment outcomes’ publication.

The Probation Service is responsible for managing all offenders on a community sentence or licence following their release from prison in England and Wales.

There are 12 probation regions – 11 in England and one in Wales.

1.1  Operational context

In 2024/25 the Probation Service was under consistent pressure. To manage this, in April 2024, the Probation Service introduced a change in practice known as Probation Reset. Under Probation Reset, probation practitioner engagement is prioritised towards the first two-thirds of an individual’s sentence where intervention can have the most impact.

For eligible offenders, this suspends some sentence management contact for those on licence, post-sentence supervision, and those with rehabilitation activity requirements under community orders or suspended sentence orders. Although the reset will suspend some contact for eligible offenders, their orders and licences will remain active. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset, including details on eligibility and exclusion criteria.

Both the pressure on probation, and the measures to address it, will vary by region but are likely to impact the performance measures presented.

2. Employment at 6 weeks post release from custody for supervised cases

• From May 2024 to March 2025, 20.1% of offenders were employed at 6 weeks post release from custody (excluding those who are eligible for Probation Reset, unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown).
• In the year to March 2024, 19.3% of offenders were employed at 6 weeks post release from custody (excluding those who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown).
• These figures are not comparable. Due to the introduction of Probation Reset in April 2024, there is a break in the time series for employment at 6 weeks post release from custody. Under Probation Reset, supervision is suspended for eligible offenders. Consequently, some offenders who are on the probation caseload will not be in scope to measure their employment status at the 6-week measurement point. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset, including details on eligibility and exclusion criteria.

Figure 1: Employment at 6 weeks post release from custody, by performance year, April 2019 to March 2025, England and Wales

(Source: 2023/24 Employment at 6 weeks post release from custody data tables, Table 2; 2024/25 Employment at 6 weeks post release from custody data tables, Table 2)

2.1 Outcomes by region

• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, Wales saw the highest performance with 28.7% of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody.
• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the North East saw the lowest performance with 13.0% of offenders in employment at 6 weeks post release from custody.

Figure 2: Employment at 6 weeks post release from custody for supervised cases, by region, May 2024 to March 2025

(Source: 2024/25 Employment at 6 weeks post release from custody data tables, Table 3b)

3. Employment at 6 months post release from custody for supervised cases

• From May 2024 to March 2025, 34.5% of offenders were employed at 6 months post release from custody (excluding those who are eligible for Probation Reset, who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown).
• In the year to March 2024, 31.1% of offenders were employed at 6 months post release from custody (excluding those who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown)
• These figures are not comparable. Due to the introduction of Probation Reset in April 2024, there is a break in the time series for employment at 6 months post release from custody. Under Probation Reset, supervision is suspended for eligible offenders. Consequently, some offenders who are on the probation caseload will not be in scope to measure their employment status at the 6-month post release from custody measurement point. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset, including details on eligibility and exclusion criteria.

Figure 3: Employment at 6 months post release from custody, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2025, England and Wales

(Source: 2023/24 Employment at 6 months post release from custody, Table 2; 2024/25 Employment at 6 months post release from custody data tables, Table 2)

3.1 Outcomes by region

• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, Greater Manchester saw the highest performance with 54.6% of offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody.
• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the North East saw the lowest performance with 20.8% of offenders in employment at 6 months post release from custody.

Figure 4: Employment at 6 months post release from custody for supervised cases, by region, May 2024 to March 2025

(Source: 2024/25 Employment at 6 months post release from custody data tables, Table 3b)

4. Employment at 6 months post community disposal for supervised cases

• From May 2024 to March 2025, 45.8% of those sentenced to a community order were employed 6 months after starting their sentence (excluding those who are eligible for Probation Reset, those who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown).
• In the year to March 2024, 46.4% of those sentenced to a community order were employed 6 months after starting their sentence (excluding those who are unavailable for work, or those whose employment status is unknown)
• These figures are not comparable. Due to the introduction of Probation Reset in April 2024, there is a break in the time series for employment at 6 months post community disposal. Under Probation Reset, supervision is suspended for eligible offenders. Consequently, some offenders who are on the probation caseload will not be in scope to measure their employment status at the 6-month post community disposal measurement point. See statistical guidance for further information on Probation Reset, including details on eligibility and exclusion criteria.

Figure 5: Employment at 6 months post community disposal, by performance year, April 2020 to March 2025, England and Wales

(Source: 2023/24 Employment at 6 months post community disposal, Table 2; 2024/25 Employment at 6 months post community disposal, Table 2)

4.1 Outcomes by region

• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the North West saw the highest performance with 55.2% of offenders in employment at 6 months after starting their community sentence.
• Of the 12 probation regions across England and Wales, the North East saw the lowest performance with 30.2% of offenders in employment at 6 months after starting their community sentence.

Figure 6: Employment at 6 months post community disposal for supervised cases, by region, May 2024 to March 2025

(Source: 2024/25 Employment at 6 months post community disposal, Table 3b)

5. Further insights

5.1 Outcomes by sentence length

• As seen in figure 7, for both employment at 6 weeks and employment at 6 months post release from custody, the employment rate increases with length of sentence. Similar findings between sentence length and outcomes have been observed in the 2024/25 Offender accommodation outcomes publication.
• While a direct comparison cannot be made for all sentence lengths due to significant changes in the Probation Service, the cohort of offenders serving sentences of 12 months or more has been less severely affected. From May 2024 to March 2025, 37.8% of offenders serving sentences of 12 months or more were in employment at 6 months post release from custody. Data from April 2023 to March 2024 show the employment rate for offenders serving sentences of 12 months or more was 35.5% at 6 months post release from custody (see Offender employment outcomes, update to March 2024, Figure 9).

Figure 7: Offender employment outcomes at 6 weeks post release from custody and 6 months post release from custody, by sentence length, May 2024 to March 2025

(Source: Employment at 6 weeks post release from custody data tables, Table 8b; Employment at 6 months post release from custody data tables, Table 8b)

5.2 Other characteristics

There are differing levels of outcomes between groups within the characteristics of sex, age, ethnicity, and offence type, however, differences in cohort sizes should be considered when interpreting potential disproportionality.

• Across all employment measures, lower employment rates are seen for females in comparison to males.
• For age, higher employment rates are generally seen among those aged between 25 and 39.
• Across all employment measures, those aged between 18 and 24 represent the highest proportion of unemployed offenders.
• Higher employment rates were seen in the White ethnicity group of offenders who have served a custodial sentence. Additionally, higher employment rates of offenders serving a community sentence were seen among Asian or Asian British, or Other Ethnic groups.
• There is high variation of employment rates between different offence types committed.

6. Further information

As well as this bulletin, the following products are published as part of this release:

• Offender employment outcomes – statistical guidance
• Offender employment outcomes – data tables

Enquiries about these statistics should be directed to:
E Stradling
Email: CrossCuttingPerformanceEnquiries@justice.gov.uk

7. Official statistics

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