Type of employment opportunities for young people

Published: 11 September 2024
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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%

    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 21.5 12.0
    Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire 20.8 15.1
    Cheshire 24.0 9.2
    Cornwall and Isles of Scilly 24.2 8.9
    Cumbria 19.4 7.0
    Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire 26.6 10.2
    Devon 21.4 8.5
    Dorset and Somerset 22.9 9.6
    East Anglia 24.1 9.3
    East Wales 26.1 9.4
    East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire 31.5 7.0
    Eastern Scotland 30.0 9.8
    Essex 18.4 10.9
    Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area 19.2 11.6
    Greater Manchester 27.3 10.1
    Hampshire and Isle of Wight 22.4 10.9
    Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire 22.1 11.0
    Highlands and Islands 25.7 4.3
    Inner London - East 23.2 20.2
    Inner London - West 22.5 23.5
    Kent 20.4 8.6
    Lancashire 26.0 8.2
    Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire 22.7 9.9
    Lincolnshire 25.8 6.0
    Merseyside 25.5 9.1
    North Eastern Scotland 29.2 9.4
    North Yorkshire 22.3 10.7
    Northern Ireland 32.9 9.4
    Northumberland and Tyne and Wear 32.3 8.3
    Outer London - East and North East 24.3 11.7
    Outer London - South 21.0 16.9
    Outer London - West and North West 27.4 12.8
    Shropshire and Staffordshire 25.9 7.4
    South Yorkshire 31.4 6.2
    Southern Scotland 25.6 5.1
    Surrey, East and West Sussex 21.3 11.1
    Tees Valley and Durham 30.7 6.6
    West Central Scotland 32.2 10.0
    West Midlands 33.4 8.8
    West Wales and The Valleys 29.1 5.5
    West Yorkshire 28.0 8.8
  • 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, 74KB)

    This file contains the following variables:

    • Indicator code
    • Indicator name
    • Area type
    • Area code
    • Area name
    • Time period
    • Socio-economic background
    • Age
    • Sex
    • Category type
    • Category
    • Category type2
    • Category2
    • Value
    • Sample size
    • Lower confidence interval
    • Upper confidence interval
    • Standard error
    • Unit
    • Value note

    Page history

    Publication release date:

    11 September 2024

    Editions of this page:

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