Managers and professionals dominate new job growth in UK

Relatively well-paying managerial, professional and -professional-type jobs have grown faster than any other sort of work in the UK across the past decade. That is the central finding of a new analysis report published by The Work Foundation.

The report finds that, far from there having been a boom in low-paying, low-skilled service sector jobs since the mid-1990s, in truth the lower paying roles have grown less significantly than ‘good jobs’ at higher levels of the labour market. In addition, the report suggests that, among males, managerial jobs grew by 12.73%, professional jobs by 8.13% and associate professional jobs by 16.98% between 1995 and 2005.

The decade has also seen more women move into managerial and professional work. Among the female population, the number of managers grew by 29.53%, professionals by 15.01% and associate professionals by a huge 56.89% (although the overall numbers of workers in these categories remain relatively small – for example, women in associate professional roles comprised just 16% of all workers in 2005).

Ian Brinkley – director of the knowledge economy programme at The Work Foundation and co-author of the report entitled ‘Efficiency and Labour Market Polarisation’ – told SMT: “The idea that the decline of manufacturing has meant the end of decent jobs paying decent salaries and wages for vast numbers of individuals is clearly unfounded. Economic change is never painless. However, a more knowledge-intensive world of work, wherein people work with their heads more than their hands, appears to be a relatively benign development for workers.”

The report – co-authored by Brinkley and Dr Rebecca Fauth – challenges a hefty number of popular theories. In the 1990s, it was widely claimed that work and society were becoming more and more divided, while breaking into ‘the elite’ would be nigh on impossible. That story no longer holds water. Instead, what seems to be happening is that, if anything, the world of work is upwardly mobile. Brinkley continued: “Although there has been some polarisation among men, with a growth in shelf-stacking and van driving-type jobs alongside the lawyers, accountants and management consultants, overall the knowledge economy does not seem to be creating a new class divide. Among women in particular, there seems to have been a fairly smooth transition into higher-skilled, higher-paying employment.”

While it is ‘jobs at the top’ that have grown most quickly, the UK still has relatively large numbers of people in low-skilled, low-paying work. Some seven million jobs require no qualifications, while 26% of men and 35% of women earn below the median income level.

Dr Rebecca Fauth commented: “The knowledge economy deserves a reasonably clean bill of health. Contrary to the predictions, it doesn’t seem to be creating a new underclass. From our analysis, it would appear that more workers are moving towards professional and managerial remit across the last decade.

“However, with labels like ‘manager’ there is always an issue of ‘title creep’. In other words, people calling themselves managers when ‘administrator’ or ‘supervisor’ might be somewhat more accurate. Unfortunately, statistics don’t really help with such issues.”

Contact The Work Foundation direct on (telephone) 020 7004 7224 to obtain your copy of ‘Efficiency and Labour Market Penetration’.