The Jobs People Do
31/07/2002 | Posted by John Smith in UK stats
Financial and business services now account for about one in five jobs in the UK, compared with about one in ten in 1981. Part of the growth in these service industries and the decline in manufacturing.
Twenty years ago one in three jobs held by men was in manufacturing. By 2001 this had fallen to about one in five. The proportion of female workers in this sector dropped from nearly one in five to under one in ten.
Other changes in Britain’s labour force over the last two decades include a marked increase in the number of jobs performed by women. Now the numbers are almost equal, with men performing 12.8 million jobs and women 12.7 million, although almost half of these are part time.
But men and women still follow very different career paths. About a quarter of female employees do administrative or secretarial work, while men are most likely to be managers, senior officials or in skilled trades.
Source: National Statistics Online