Occupational progression

Data on the patterns of upward career mobility into the professional classes for people aged 25 to 44 in the UK, by socio-economic background.

Summary main findings
By sex
About the data
Download the data

Summary main findings

Data from 2014 to 2021 shows that men and women aged 25 to 44 years from professional socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to work in professional occupations.

People’s chances of working in the professional classes increased between 25 to 35 years old, and then slowed in their late 30s and early 40s. The increase was greater for young people from professional backgrounds.

By sex

Probability of access to the professional classes by socio-economic background, sex and age, controlling for survey year (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)

Women

Men

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Probability of access to the professional classes by socio-economic background, sex and age, controlling for survey year (UK, 2014 to 2021 combined)
Age (years)	Lower working		Higher working		Intermediate		Lower professional		Higher professional
Age (years)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)	Men (%)	Women (%)
25	24.4	25.8	30.8	31.3	33.7	35.0	44.1	44.3	49.6	48.3
26	25.7	26.7	32.6	32.6	35.7	36.5	46.7	46.3	52.4	50.4
27	26.9	27.6	34.2	33.7	37.5	37.8	49.1	48.1	55.1	52.4
28	28.0	28.3	35.8	34.8	39.3	39.1	51.4	49.8	57.5	54.3
29	29.0	28.9	37.2	35.7	40.9	40.2	53.5	51.4	59.8	56.0
30	29.8	29.4	38.5	36.5	42.3	41.2	55.4	52.8	61.8	57.6
31	30.6	29.8	39.7	37.2	43.7	42.1	57.2	54.1	63.7	59.0
32	31.3	30.1	40.7	37.8	44.9	42.9	58.8	55.3	65.4	60.3
33	31.8	30.3	41.6	38.3	45.9	43.5	60.3	56.3	67.0	61.4
34	32.1	30.3	42.4	38.6	46.8	44.0	61.5	57.2	68.3	62.4
35	32.4	30.3	42.9	38.8	47.5	44.4	62.6	57.9	69.5	63.3
36	32.5	30.1	43.4	38.8	48.1	44.6	63.6	58.5	70.6	64.0
37	32.5	29.8	43.7	38.8	48.5	44.7	64.4	59.0	71.4	64.6
38	32.3	29.4	43.8	38.6	48.8	44.6	65.0	59.3	72.2	65.1
39	32.0	28.9	43.8	38.2	48.9	44.5	65.5	59.5	72.8	65.4
40	31.5	28.3	43.6	37.8	48.8	44.1	65.9	59.6	73.3	65.6
41	31.0	27.6	43.2	37.2	48.6	43.7	66.1	59.5	73.6	65.7
42	30.3	26.8	42.8	36.5	48.3	43.1	66.1	59.3	73.9	65.7
43	29.5	25.9	42.1	35.7	47.7	42.4	66.1	59.0	74.0	65.5
44	28.5	24.9	41.3	34.7	47.1	41.6	65.8	58.6	74.0	65.2

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 2021 (combined)

Geographic area

What the data measures

The data shows the patterns of upward career mobility into the professional classes (known as intra-generational mobility) for people aged 25 to 44 years in the UK.

Data is shown for the following socio-economic backgrounds:

higher professional class
lower professional class
intermediate class
higher working class
lower working classes

These are based on the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC), set by the ONS.

Things you need to know

The data used is weighted using the LFS probability weights.

Estimates are the average marginal effects derived from a logistic regression model of access to the professional classes by socio-economic background and age, controlling for survey year.

The error bars show 95% confidence intervals. These intervals show where we expect the true value from a population to be 95% of the time. For example, a confidence interval with the range of values from 5 to 10 implies that there is a 95% chance that the true population value is between 5 and 10, and a 5% chance that it is outside of this range. The narrower the confidence interval or range, the more precise the estimate. Read more about confidence intervals

Type of data

Survey data

Full report

Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 38KB)

This file contains the following variables:

Indicator code
Indicator name
Area code
Area name
Area type
Age
Socio-economic background
Category type
Category
Value
Lower confidence interval
Upper confidence interval
Standard error
Time period
Unit
Sex

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