Sky News evaluation of the newest census information exhibits the roles we now work in, revealing a shift to information and laptop programming.
The youngest employees had been in retail and hospitality whereas farmers and elected officers had probably the most employees aged 60 and over.
Some 27.8 million folks aged 16 and over in England and Wales stated they had been in employment on the time the census was taken in March 2021. This was in the course of the center of the pandemic, nevertheless these on furlough had been requested to report their employment as ongoing.
The hottest jobs have modified over time, reflecting wider societal shifts as advances in know-how create new roles.
Computer programming has seen one of many largest rises. An extra 274,000 folks work within the discipline in contrast with when the final census befell in 2011.
This represented the most important rank change among the many top-ranking professions over the time interval, climbing from 14th commonest in 2011 to eighth in 2021.
Financial companies dropped down the rankings furthest, from tenth to thirteenth place.
There are actually extra folks employed in laptop programming and consultancy than in monetary companies, together with in London.
This pattern in the direction of newer professions can also be proven by rising age gaps in among the extra conventional roles.
For information entry professionals, 16-34 year-olds made up two fifths of the workforce.
In distinction, greater than three fifths of “typists and other keyboard professions” had been aged 50 or older.
Are newer professions extra prone to being overtaken by growing AI applied sciences?
Some of the roles which can be most in danger are these jobs in information and digital the place extra younger individuals are working.
New polling shared with Sky News exhibits that one in 4 employees (24%) are anxious in regards to the potential of generative AI (comparable to ChatGPT) to make their job redundant.
The polling, carried out by Opinium for Prospect, a commerce union for tech consultants and different specialist roles, additionally exhibits that 58% of employees imagine the federal government ought to set guidelines round the usage of AI to guard employees’ jobs.
Andrew Pakes, deputy basic secretary of the Prospect union, stated: “There are clearly risks as well as benefits associated with AI, especially over how it is introduced at work and what it means for jobs.
“Our polling discovered {that a} quarter of employees are anxious in regards to the potential for generative AI like ChatGPT to make their job redundant.
“Despite new skills involved in data and tech roles, many jobs are precarious and insecure – not just from the threat of AI but also from employers deploying new tech at work without consultation or accountability.
“Rather than ready till extra issues happen earlier than taking motion, authorities should have interaction now with each workers and employers to attract up truthful new guidelines for utilizing this tech.”
What are the most gender-specific jobs?
Among the most male-dominated professions were construction and building roles. Over 99% of bricklayers, roofers and scaffolders were men.
The professions with the highest share of women were midwifery at 99% and nannies at 98.1%.
Some 97% of early education and childcare practitioners were women, however in higher education roles such as university lecturing there was a much more even split, with 48% women. This matches the proportion of women in the wider working population.
There is good news for gender balance in some professions, however, with younger women making progress in the science and engineering professions.
Although male engineers outnumber women by 10 to one in the 50 to 54 age group, we can see a younger cohort of women making up ground. Nearly half of engineers in the 16 to 34 age group were women.
Are some professions dying out?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, sports and hospitality roles were among the youngest-leaning jobs of those surveyed, with 79% of professional sports players and 77.5% of coffee shop workers aged under 35.
Other occupations however lean heavily towards older age groups, suggesting they may not be attracting younger workers.
The jobs with the oldest age profiles were elected representatives (which includes roles like councillors and MPs) and farmers, with around a third of workers in those professions aged 65 and over.
A spokesperson for the Local Government Association, who represents councils in England and Wales, said: “Being a councillor is massively rewarding position which provides you the prospect to make an enormous distinction to the standard of lifetime of native folks. We want folks from all backgrounds and experiences who mirror the communities they serve to place themselves ahead for election.
“The LGA, through its Next Generation and Be a Councillor programmes, does all it can both to encourage more young people to stand for election as well as support existing younger councillors to take on greater leadership roles in their local authorities.”
For farmers, 43% of employees had been aged over 60, making it the oldest skewing occupation general. However, farm employees – who’re recorded individually and who might do extra of the bodily labour – are sometimes younger. Nearly 1 / 4 of farm employees had been aged beneath 25.
So is the farming sector in bother, or will these youthful farm employees ultimately progress into extra senior roles?
Looking on the change for the reason that 2011 census, there does appear to be a shift with the inhabitants of farmers ageing.
In 2021, 53,000 (57%) of the 92,000 farmers aged 20 and over had been beneath 60. Not solely has the whole variety of farmers fallen from 113,000 in 2011, the share of youthful farmers has additionally decreased; down from 67%.
The age teams used differ barely between the newest census and 2011. We have adjusted the age teams accordingly in order that the 2021 figures symbolize 20 years and over whereas the 2011 information refers to twenty to 74-year-olds.
Chris Dickinson, a farmer from Cumbria and a member of the National Farming Union’s Next Generation Forum, which goals to champion the position of the following era in farming, stated: “Farming, especially in rural areas, is a key part of the economy.
“It is an enormous, huge supply of employment and there is not a lot else folks can do. So, it is essential that we’re bringing new expertise in into the trade on a regular basis.”
However, this can be challenging due to the initial costs faced by those wanting to enter the profession, low margins in the industry, and other factors making the work harder such as general labour shortages.
At £10,000 an acre, even a relatively small 50 acre farm would cost £500,000 for the land alone.
He added: “It’s not seen as a classy occupation to get in to, it’s totally lengthy hours – much more than you’ll do working in a traditional job. It is not for everybody.
“The margins haven’t been particularly great in farming over the past few years. UK farmers can’t compete [with imported foods] because of higher labour and energy costs.”
And older farmers might find yourself carrying on longer than they usually would as a result of there isn’t any one prepared to tackle the farm.
What are the commonest jobs?
The high 10 commonest roles make use of 5.5 million folks, representing one in 5 of the working inhabitants.
There are over 1.1 million employees presently employed in gross sales and retail positions throughout England and Wales, making it the commonest job sort. This is adopted by care employees and residential carers at 856,000.
The ONS have additionally launched an interactive device the place you will discover out how many individuals work in an analogous position to you.
The Data and Forensics workforce is a multi-skilled unit devoted to offering clear journalism from Sky News. We collect, analyse and visualise information to inform data-driven tales. We mix conventional reporting expertise with superior evaluation of satellite tv for pc photographs, social media and different open supply data. Through multimedia storytelling we intention to raised clarify the world whereas additionally displaying how our journalism is completed.
Why information journalism issues to Sky News
Source: information.sky.com”