4.2 Human resources
4.2.1 Health workforce trends
As of 2014, 1.57 million people were working for the NHS (ONS, 2014c),
making it the largest employer in the United Kingdom, and indeed in Europe
(NHS Jobs, 2015). Between 2000 and 2009 the NHS workforce expanded at
an average annual rate of 3.4% (The King’s Fund, 2013c). In the figures below,
note that because of differences in the way data are recorded and physicians
are defined, they are not fully comparable across countries.