Employment in and around Pluckley

The 1999 village appraisal showed 52% of residents were in employment, 3% disabled, and 10% in education or training, leaving 33% retired or unwaged husbands/wives. The unemployed (2%) were evenly spread over the normal working age range. This is equivalent to Ashford's unemployment figures although lower than the national average.

Of those who replied, there were seven people whose Pluckley situated business employed more than 25 people. The largest numbers of businesses (but not necessarily the largest employers) are in:-

Building 26%
Agriculture/Horticulture 17%
Financial/Professional Services 16%

Of the 42 employers who replied, 21 showed Pluckley as their main place of work. The largest numbers of these were in agriculture/horticulture, five in tourism, and four retailers.
Just a quarter of the workforce who live in Pluckley actually work in the village: 18% of these live near enough to walk to work, a further 7% bicycle to work. A few people are picked up by minibus to work in the orchards. As Pluckley is a long, spread-out village 40% still use a car. A further 26% work within 5 miles of the village or in Ashford. Another 14% work in Maidstone, Canterbury or in towns and villages up to 20 miles away. 9% travel over 20 miles to work, while 5% travel all over Kent or the SE of England. 1% even work abroad. 15% of workers are London commuters who either drive to Pluckley station for the Charing Cross train or to Charing for the Victoria line. Surprisingly, a third of the London travellers choose to drive all the way. A few people travel to Ashford, Maidstone, or Folkestone by motorbike or train. Everyone else relies on the car. The bus services are discussed later, but for some jobs it is impossible to consider them as a method of getting to work.
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