Occupational progression

Published: 12 September 2023
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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.

  1. Summary main findings
  2. By sex
  3. About the data
  4. 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

Visualisation

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

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Data

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
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
  • 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 2021 (combined)

    Geographic area

    UK

    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

    Read more in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.

    Download the data

    Download full dataset (CSV, 37KB)

    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

    Page history

    Publication release date:

    12 September 2023

    Editions of this page:

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