Type of employment opportunities for young people

Published: 11 September 2024
Updated: 18 December 2025
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Data on the occupational level of 22 to 29 year olds in the UK, from 2014 to 2022.

  1. Summary main findings
  2. By year
  3. By area
  4. About the data
  5. Download the data

Summary main findings

In the last decade, there has been an increase in professional employment opportunities for young people.

From 2014 to 2022:

  • the percentage of 22 to 29 year olds in professional and managerial jobs went up from 38% to 46%
  • the percentage in higher working class jobs (skilled manual work) went down from 25% to 16%

By year

Visualisation

Percentage of 22 to 29 year olds in each of the 5 occupational classes, over time (UK, 2014 to 2022)

Click or tap on legend items to toggle visibility

Data

Percentage of 22 to 29 year olds in each of the 5 occupational classes, over time (UK, 2014 to 2022)
Year Lower working (%) Higher working (%) Intermediate (%) Lower professional (%) Higher professional (%)
2022 16.6 16.1 20.8 28.3 18.1
2021 15.7 17.4 22.9 27.0 16.9
2020 12.7 20.4 22.1 30.5 14.2
2019 13.0 23.5 21.4 28.2 13.8
2018 13.8 22.9 22.6 27.4 13.3
2017 14.9 24.7 22.7 26.8 10.9
2016 14.3 25.8 22.4 26.0 11.5
2015 15.4 24.4 22.6 26.5 11.1
2014 15.5 25.1 21.6 27.3 10.5
  • Download the data (CSV, 690B)

    • Download

    For the full download file, see Download the data.

    By area

    Visualisation

    Percentage of 22 to 29 year olds in lower working and higher professional occupations, by area (UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)

    41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest values. They are then divided into 5 equally-sized groups (‘quintiles’), from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).

    The lines either side of the dots represent confidence intervals – the range of values that the 'true' value for each region is highly likely to be within. In many cases the confidence intervals overlap. This suggests differences between specific regions may not be statistically significant.

    The regional estimates have a large margin of error – do not rank or compare specific regions. See the composite indices for more precise estimates and to understand overall regional patterns.

    Q1 - Lowest 20%
    Q5 - Highest 20%
    Q1 - Lowest 20%
    Q5 - Highest 20%

    Data

    Percentage of 22 to 29 year olds in lower working and higher professional occupations, by area (UK, 2014 to 2022 combined)
    Region Lower working (%) Higher professional (%)
    Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire 13.8 14.3
    Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 11.7 17.7
    Cheshire 14.0 13.5
    Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 18.0 9.9
    Cumbria 13.5 8.0
    Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 16.0 12.4
    Devon 12.0 11.8
    Dorset and Somerset 14.9 11.5
    East Anglia 15.5 11.3
    East Wales 13.5 11.6
    East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire 20.4 9.0
    Eastern Scotland 18.9 11.8
    Essex 11.3 12.9
    Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area 11.1 14.7
    Greater Manchester 16.1 12.5
    Hampshire and Isle of Wight 12.5 13.2
    Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire 13.4 13.0
    Highlands and Islands 21.6 5.5
    Inner London - East 11.0 24.0
    Inner London - West 9.0 29.7
    Kent 11.5 10.0
    Lancashire 15.9 9.7
    Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 14.2 12.0
    Lincolnshire 15.5 7.0
    Merseyside 12.9 11.0
    North Eastern Scotland 20.8 10.5
    North Yorkshire 12.3 12.3
    Northern Ireland 18.2 12.3
    Northumberland, and Tyne and Wear 17.7 11.0
    Outer London - East and North East 11.5 14.8
    Outer London - South 11.7 19.9
    Outer London - West and North West 12.7 16.3
    Shropshire and Staffordshire 17.6 8.9
    South Yorkshire 18.9 11.3
    Southern Scotland 17.0 5.9
    Surrey, East and West Sussex 12.5 14.4
    Tees Valley and Durham 17.6 8.9
    West Central Scotland 20.1 12.8
    West Midlands 17.2 11.8
    West Wales and The Valleys 16.3 7.1
    West Yorkshire 17.1 11.2
  • Download the data (CSV, 1KB)

    • Download

    For the full download file, see Download the data.

    About the data

    Data source

    Office for National Statistics (ONS), Labour Force Survey (LFS)

    Time period

    • 2014 to 2022 (By year)
    • 2014 to 2022 combined (By area)

    Geographic area

    UK

    What the data measures

    The data shows the occupation level of employed 22 to 29 year olds in the UK between 2014 and 2022. It also shows data by region.

    Regions are based on where the people surveyed lived when they were 14 years old.

    Things you need to know

    Socio-economic background is based on the main earner’s occupation when the respondent was 14 years old. If there was no earner in the family, respondents are included in the lower working class category.

    Data is weighted using LFS person weights.

    Due to rounding, some totals may not add up to 100%.

    Type of data

    Survey data

    Full report

    Read more in State of the Nation 2024 on GOV.UK.

    Download the data

    Download full dataset (CSV, 76KB)

    This file contains the following variables:

    • Measure code
    • Measure title
    • Chart type
    • Area code
    • Area type
    • Area name
    • Primary split type
    • Primary split value
    • Secondary split type
    • Secondary split value
    • Tertiary split type
    • Tertiary split value
    • Time period
    • Value
    • Lower confidence interval
    • Upper confidence interval
    • Sample size
    • Unit
    • Variable used
    • Weight used
    • Age used
    • Year used
    • Label

    Page history

    Publication release date:

    11 September 2024

    Updated:

    18 December 2025

    Full page history for this edition

    Editions of this page:

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