Over half of the 3.6 million jobs created during the last 20 years have been in the business services sector, while manual labour has witnessed steep declines, a new report reveals.
Research from Halifax shows that over 1.9 million, or 54%, of the jobs created since 1985 have been within the real estate services, IT, accountancy, legal services, architecture and advertising sectors.
The figure marks a 92% change in the number of those employed.
The study also found that the wholesale and retail trade sector now employs more people than any other sector. With 4.5 million workers in 2005, the sector accounts for 17% of the UK’s total workforce.
Hotels, restaurants and healthcare were among the other industries that recorded gains of between 500,000 and 1 million in terms of the number employed between Q1 1985 and Q1 of this year.
Manufacturing, meanwhile, suffered the greatest loss in numbers employed, dropping over 1.8 million jobs, 37% of the industry’s workforce, over the same period.
In 1985 retailers were the second largest employer behind manufacturers, who employed 5 million people.
“The longer-term trend remains one of a shift from traditional manufacturing, mining and agriculture jobs toward services,” said Tim Crawford, group economist at Halifax.
“More than 80% of British workers are employed in services compared with less than 70% 20 years ago, whilst the number of jobs in manufacturing has fallen by nearly 2 million since 1985.”
The mining and agricultural industries also posted sharp declines of 360,000 and 118,000 jobs, respectively.
