page_title: Skipton
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Skipton / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: The Bailey, Skipton Building Society
context_page_description: Skipton is a market town and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. Historically in the East Division of Staincliffe Wapentake in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal to the south of the Yorkshire Dales. It is situated 27 miles north-west of Leeds and 38 miles west of York. At the 2011 Census, the population was 14,623.
  The town was listed in the 2018 Sunday Times report on Best Places to Live in northern England.
context_section_description: The town's major local employer is Skipton Building Society, with its subsidiary companies. The town is home to several holiday companies, including Blue Water Holidays and several cottage holiday firms. It is a centre for recruitment agencies, with several hundred people employed in this sector. Recruitment firms include Medacs, HCL Doctors, Templars, Holt Doctors and Medic International and Justteachers. Tourism and retail sales are also significant. The Global Environmental Engineer JBA Consulting is headquartered here. There is a recruitment software company called LMS Recruitment Systems Ltd.
  The town is known as the "Gateway to the Dales", because of its close proximity to the Yorkshire Dales. Skipton has many visitors, particularly on market days (Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday). As Skipton is the nearest and largest town to most of the small towns and villages within the Dales, it attracts numerous shoppers. In 2008, the Academy of Urbanism voted High Street the best shopping spot in Britain. The wide main street used to host the sheep market, but now a general market is held there four days a week and livestock is auctioned at the Auction Mart on the western edge of the town. The town has three official allotment sites.
  Chocolatier Whittakers, now based in the town, was established in 1889 in nearby Cross Hills. Ida Whittaker began making chocolates there in 1903, taught by the wife of the vicar of Kildwick.
caption: The Bailey, headquarters of the Skipton Building Society.
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