Today the Leeds Jewish community numbers less than 7,000 (though there are about 1,000 Jewish students at its two universities who have little to do with the 'core' community). It is now chiefly middle class in character with numerous professional people within its ranks - although the proletarian origins of the community are still reflected in the background of some of its large number of old people. The birth rate is low, mainly because of continuous net emigration of young people from Leeds, to which the lack of a specific Jewish high school may be a contributory factor.
An illustration of the change that has taken place in the economy of the community is the decline in the fortunes of the tailoring industry with which, as has been mentioned, a great many of the Leeds Jews were once closely connected. Today there are hardly any Jewish tailoring companies and hardly any Jewish tailors, and the industry as a whole has dramatically contracted in Leeds since the last war. Apparently the 60,000 workers it employed as recently as the 1950's has now been reduced to a small fraction of that number.
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