SkillsActive's sixth UK Working in Fitness Survey - one of the largest annual surveys of people working in the UK health and fitness sector - has been launched online.

Conducted online by SkillsActive and the Register of Exercise Professionals (REPs), the online survey has been created to give insight into how the fitness industry rewards its workforce as well as salary levels, job satisfaction and spending on training and development.

Liz Smith, research manager at SkillsActive, said: "In previous research for our Sector Skills Agreement we estimated an average 8,500 job openings a year in the fitness industry to meet staff turnover and the creation of new positions. One of the survey aims is to find out whether the industry is doing enough to attract new, as well as retain existing staff to meet these future demands."

The confidential survey will run from 18 May - 17 July 2009 and is open to any full-time, part-time, or self-employed fitness professional.

Jean-Ann Marnoch, registrar of REPs, added: "It's really important that as many people take part as possible to get a good representation of jobs in the industry and to be able to identify issues at a local level. By representing your views we can show what the industry is doing well and where improvement is needed. For example, last year we found fitness professionals were positive about remaining in the industry but continued to report a need for improvements in the areas of salary and career progression."