The statistic shows the distribution of the workforce across economic sectors in the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2023. In 2023, 0.99 percent of the workforce were employed in agriculture, 17.77 percent in manufacturing and 81.25 percent in services. The same year, the total UK population amounted to about 81 million people.

Throughout the 20th century, employment structures in Western Europe gradually transitioned from being primarily agriculture and industry based, to then being dominated by service industries. The agriculture, forestry, and fishing sector saw the most drastic change over this period, with its share of the total workforce dropping from over 38 percent to less than 3 percent between 1900 and 2000. Employment in industrial sectors saw most growth between 1900 and 1973, before dropping significantly in the last quarter century. It was in the second half of the 1900s when the service sector became the largest employer in Western Europe, jumping from 36 percent of the workforce in 1950 to 69 percent in 2000. Generally speaking, reduced employment in agricultural and, later, industrial sectors was largely due to mechanization and automation, which meant that output from these sectors remained relatively healthy despite having a lower share of the labor force.

In January 2025, the employment rate in the United Kingdom was 74.9 percent, up from 74.7 percent in the same period a year earlier. After almost dropping below 70 percent in 2011, the employment rate in the United Kingdom started to climb at a relatively fast pace, peaking in early 2020. Due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the employment declined to 74.6 percent by January 2021. Although not quite at pre-pandemic levels, the employment rate has since recovered. Hot UK labor market cools in 2023 Although unemployment in the UK spiked at 5.1 percent in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it fell throughout most of 2022, to just 3.6 percent in August 2022. Around that time, the number of job vacancies in the UK was also at quite high levels, reaching a peak of 1.3 million by May 2022. The strong labor market put employees in quite a strong position, perhaps encouraging the high number of resignations that took place around that time. While wage growth has also been strong since 2022, these gains were cancelled-out for a long period between 2021 and 2023 when inflation grew faster than wages. By July 2023, unemployment had bounced back to 4.3 percent, while the number of job vacancies fell below one million in August 2023 for the first time since August 2021. UK in recession at end of 2023 Although the UK labor market has loosened since 2022, it has generally remained in good health, with unemployment low by historical standards. Inflation also fell throughout 2023, from 10.1 percent at the beginning of the year, to four percent by December. Getting inflation down to more acceptable levels, however, came at the expense of raising the Bank of England's already high-interest rate throughout 2023. The knock-on effect of higher borrowing costs likely did little to spur economic growth that year, with GDP growing by just 0.1 percent in 2023. Even this meager economic growth was only achieved due to growth in the first half of the year. In the second half of 2023, the economy shrank in two consecutive quarters, meaning the UK is officially in recession heading into a probable election year.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Business Structure Database (BSD) contains a small number of variables for almost all business organisations in the UK. The BSD is derived primarily from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a live register of data collected by HM Revenue and Customs via VAT and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. The IDBR data are complimented with data from ONS business surveys. If a business is liable for VAT (turnover exceeds the VAT threshold) and/or has at least one member of staff registered for the PAYE tax collection system, then the business will appear on the IDBR (and hence in the BSD). In 2004 it was estimated that the businesses listed on the IDBR accounted for almost 99 per cent of economic activity in the UK. Only very small businesses, such as the self-employed were not found on the IDBR.

The IDBR is frequently updated, and contains confidential information that cannot be accessed by non-civil servants without special permission. However, the ONS Virtual Micro-data Laboratory (VML) created and developed the BSD, which is a 'snapshot' in time of the IDBR, in order to provide a version of the IDBR for research use, taking full account of changes in ownership and restructuring of businesses. The 'snapshot' is taken around April, and the captured point-in-time data are supplied to the VML by the following September. The reporting period is generally the financial year. For example, the 2000 BSD file is produced in September 2000, using data captured from the IDBR in April 2000. The data will reflect the financial year of April 1999 to March 2000. However, the ONS may, during this time, update the IDBR with data on companies from its own business surveys, such as the Annual Business Survey (SN 7451).

The data are divided into 'enterprises' and 'local units'. An enterprise is the overall business organisation. A local unit is a 'plant', such as a factory, shop, branch, etc. In some cases, an enterprise will only have one local unit, and in other cases (such as a bank or supermarket), an enterprise will own many local units.

For each company, data are available on employment, turnover, foreign ownership, and industrial activity based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)92, SIC 2003 or SIC 2007. Year of 'birth' (company start-up date) and 'death' (termination date) are also included, as well as postcodes for both enterprises and their local units. Previously only pseudo-anonymised postcodes were available but now all postcodes are real.

The ONS is continually developing the BSD, and so researchers are strongly recommended to read all documentation pertaining to this dataset before using the data.

Linking to Other Business Studies
These data contain IDBR reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

Latest Edition Information
For the sixteenth edition (March 2024), data files and a variable catalogue document for 2023 have been added.

Main Topics:

The following variables are available for enterprises and local units:

• employment (and employees)
• turnover
• Standard Industrial Classification (1992, 2003 and 2007 classifications are available)
• legal status (e.g. sole proprietor, partnership, public corporation, non-profit organisation etc)
• foreign ownership
• birth (company start date)
• death (termination date of trading)
• various geographical variables
  

'Employment' includes business owners, whereas 'employees' measures the number of staff, excluding owners.

Observations for enterprises also include a variable for ownership if the enterprise is part of a large group of companies.

Local units have an additional ‘death code’ variable, which serves as an indicator as to why the plant closed (e.g. as a result of a merger). It should also be noted that there is no turnover information for individual plants. This is because the ONS does not collect financial information at the plant level, which is notoriously difficult, especially for manufacturing plants where often no financial transactions are processed.

The birth and death variables are particularly useful for research, although it should be noted that for businesses that began trading before 1973, their birth date will be set to 1973. This is the year that VAT was introduced in the UK, and hence the first point in time for VAT registration for these companies. Companies that began trading since 1973 have their ‘real’ date of birth listed.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) is the official source of employee and employment estimates by detailed geography and industry. It is also used to update the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), the main sampling frame for business surveys conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with information on the structure of businesses in the UK. The survey collects employment information from businesses across the whole of the UK economy for each site that they operate. This allows the ONS to produce employee and employment estimates by detailed geography and industry split by full-time/part-time workers and whether the business is public/private. The ONS produces a number of different measures of employment including Workforce Jobs and the Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey. However, BRES is the recommended source of information on employment by detailed geography and industry. The BRES has two purposes: collecting data to update local unit information and business structures on the IDBR, and producing published annual employment statistics. The BRES sample does not include Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland data are received direct from the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETINI) which are used to create UK estimates. The UK Data Archive holds data only for Great Britain. The BRES replaced the Annual Business Inquiry, Part 1 (ABI/1) in 2009. ABI/1 data for 2009 and earlier are held as part of the Annual Respondents Database under UK Data Archive SN 6644. Change in sampling from 2015-2016 In 2015, ONS made a strategic decision to include business units with a single PAYE code for which VAT data are available. Prior to 2015, such units were excluded from the sampling frame and therefore not estimated for in ONS outputs. So from January 2016, the coverage of BRES was extended to include a population of solely PAYE based businesses. This improvement in coverage is estimated to have increased the business survey population by around 100,000 businesses, with a total of around 300,000 employment and 200,000 employees between December 2015 and January 2016. The increase in business population has led to an increase in the estimate of employment and employees for the 2015 dataset. Further information is available in documentation file '7463_bres_2015_change_in_firm_sampling.pdf'. Linking to other business studies These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.For Secure Lab projects applying for access to this study as well as to SN 6697 Business Structure Database and/or SN 7683 Business Structure Database Longitudinal, only postcode-free versions of the data will be made available.Latest edition informationFor the thirteenth edition (February 2024), the 'revised 2021' and 'provisional 2022' data files have been added.

Labour market indicators for UK countries and regions, including employment, unemployment and economic inactivity, rolling three-monthly figures published monthly, seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey. These are official statistics in development.

There were over 33.9 million people employed in the United Kingdom in the three months to January 2025. This represented a peak for the number of people employed in the country during this provided time period. In general, the number of people employed has consistently increased, with noticeable dips in employment occurring in 2008 due to the global financial crisis, and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Labor market hot streak in 2022 Although there was a sharp increase in the UK's unemployment rate in the aftermath of COVID-19, the UK labor market bounced back forcefully after this sudden shock. By the middle of 2022, the UK's unemployment rate had recovered to pre-pandemic levels, while the number of job vacancies in the UK reached record highs. Wage growth was, by this point, growing at a much slower rate than inflation, which peaked at 11.1 percent in October 2022. In the two years since this peak, the UK labor market has cooled slightly; with unemployment reaching 4.4 percent by December 2024, and the number of job vacancies falling to the lowest figures since May 2021. Characteristics of UK workers As of 2024, the majority of UK workers were working in the private sector, at over 27.6 million workers. In the same year the size of the UK's public sector workforce stood at approximately 6.1 million, with over two million of these people working for the UK's National Health Service (NHS), and a further 1.66 million in the public education sector. In the UK's private sector, the industry sector which employed the most people was wholesale and retail, which had a workforce of over 4.9 million people, followed by administrative and support service roles at around 3.1 million.

This publication provides the only official government statistics that attempt to the estimate the total number of UK private sector businesses in the UK and their contribution to employment and turnover. Also provided is an estimate of the total number of businesses in the UK whole economy. The publication supercedes the BIS 'Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Statistics for the UK and Regions'.

Source agency: Business, Innovation and Skills

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: BPE for the UK and Regions

Forecast: Employment in Manufacture of Structural Metal Products Sector in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

This dataset provides data on the structure of enterprises active in Wales, including estimates for the very smallest businesses that operate below the VAT threshold. The variables analysed are counts of the enterprises active in each area, together with related employment and turnover aggregates in each of the given size bands, based on the number of UK employees in the enterprise as a whole.

The Business Structure Database is managed by the Secure Data Service (SDS) and can only be accessed through secure conditions. The ‘domestic use’ input-output matrix, contains domestic trade flows describing intermediate demand between Standard-Industrial-Classification (SIC) coded sectors. This was obtained from the ONS.

GRIT (‘Geospatial Restructuring of Industrial Trade’) is an ESRC-funded project in the School of Geography at the University of Leeds. An energy revolution must take place if the worst effects of climate change are to be avoided. Even without the impact this may have (eg through carbon pricing), fuel costs have a very uncertain future. GRIT has two aims:

create a fine-grained picture of the current spatial structure of the UK economy

consider how changing fuel prices could alter that structure over the long term. GRIT examines the web of connections between businesses in the UK to identify sectors and locations facing the greatest changes.

GRIT will work with a unique dataset: the Business Structure Database contains information for nearly every UK business, including location and sector classification. This will be linked to sectoral trade flow data. These two sources offer an opportunity to map the current spatial distribution of economic activity in the UK and to think about how that distribution may change in the future. GRIT combines this data-driven approach with a plan to engage with organisations directly affected. GRIT will work closely with a small number of organisations and engage others through the project website.

In 2023, agriculture contributed around 0.58 percent to the United Kingdom’s GDP, 17.5 percent came from the manufacturing industry, and 72.53 percent from the services sector. The UK is not a farmer’s marketThe vast majority of the UK’s GDP is generated by the services sector, and tourism in particular keeps the economy going. In 2017, almost 214 billion British Pounds were contributed to the GDP through travel and tourism – about 277 billion U.S. dollars – and the forecasts see an upwards trend. For comparison, only an estimated 10.3 billion GBP were generated by the agriculture sector in the same year. But is it a tourist’s destination still? Though forecasts are not in yet, it is unclear whether travel and tourism can keep the UK’s economy afloat in the future, especially after Brexit and all its consequences. Higher travel costs, having to wait for visas, and overall more complicated travel arrangements are just some of the concerns tourists have when considering vacationing in the UK after Brexit. Consequences of the referendum are already observable in the domestic travel industry: In 2017, about 37 percent of British travelers said Brexit caused them to cut their holidays short by a few days, and about 14 percent said they did not leave the UK for their holidays because of it.

The UK's median gender pay gap has substantially reduced from 36.4% in the 1970s to around 18%, yet it remains one of the highest in the EU and OECD. Previously attributed to differences in education and work experience, this explanation is outdated as women now frequently outpace men in education and are less likely to leave the workforce. However, women still earn about 10% less than men, even with similar work and qualifications. Research has shifted focus from productivity differences to the potential role of employer wage-setting practices. This research suggests that women's negotiating power may be undermined by familial responsibilities, leading to lower mobility in the job market and consequently lower wages. The study will explore how employer wage-setting power and job-to-job mobility contribute to the gender pay gap, aiming to inform effective policies.

The collection contains a set of syntax files used to construct an alternative employment concentration index that takes into account commuting costs. The files are based on the Stata language and use the Business Structure Dataset and the UK Longitudinal Household Study to derive the index.

The median gender pay gap has declined dramatically in the UK from 36.4% in the 1970 (O'Reilly, Smith et al. 2015) to around 18% in the most recent data (ONS 2018). Still, by international standards the pay gap is high: the UK has the fourth largest gender pay gap in the EU and the eighth largest of OECD countries (OECD 2019). Researchers and policy makers have focused on gender differences in education and labour market experience as the likely drivers of the pay gap. However, today these explanations no longer stand up to scrutiny. Women are on average better educated than men and they are much less likely to withdraw from the labour market for long periods of time. Nevertheless, women earn on average about 10% less than men even when they work full-time and have similar education and labour market experience. While explanations focusing on women's potential lower productivity as the cause of the gender pay gap have been thoroughly investigated and found inadequate, there is less evidence on the role played by employers. This research will contribute to addressing this gap. The standard economic model of the labour market assumes that wages are determined by the market and that individual employers cannot choose the wages they offer to their employees. A different model assumes that for a variety of reasons competition is not perfect and employers have some discretion over the wages they offer. This wage setting power is likely to be weaker when workers are mobile. Mobile workers will leave an employer offering wages below the market rate. However, if workers are relatively immobile, employers can exploit this 'immobility' by offering them lower wages. If women are more constrained by family responsibilities in the types of jobs that they will take-up or in the amount of time and effort they can devote to job search, they will generally be more immobile and thus at a disadvantage. Women's family responsibilities might be ultimately responsible for the gender pay gap but not because they limit their productivity but rather because they reduce their bargaining power with firms. This research project will examine the role of employer wage-setting power in driving the gender pay gap in two ways. First, using data from the UK's largest longitudinal study, it will investigate the extent to which job-to-job mobility patterns differ between men and women, and whether any differences can explain the observed gender gap in pay progression. Second, it will develop an index of employer wage-setting power based on geographical location, industry and cost of travel and test whether the index can explain gender differences in pay progression. Tackling the gender pay gap is a widely shared goal among policy makers, political parties, women's groups, trade-unions and employer organizations. A better understanding of the factors driving the gap is essential to design effective policies. For example, in April 2017, the UK government has mandated large employers report annually on the pay gap in their organization. If women's lower productivity is to blame for the gender pay gap, such legislation is likely to be ineffective and even counterproductive. On the other hand, mandatory reporting is likely to be more effective if employers' stronger wage-setting power is a significant factor behind the pay gap. More generally, if employers enjoy significant wage setting power relative to some of their employees, this has implications for legislation on anti-discrimination, the minimum wage, trade-unions and family policy.

Expert industry market research on the Structural Metal Product Manufacturing in the UK (2011-2030). Make better business decisions, faster with IBISWorld's industry market research reports, statistics, analysis, data, trends and forecasts.

In 2021, the number of hospital employees in the health sector in the United Kingdom increased by 84,452.6 employees (+5.36 percent) since 2020. With 1,660,883.41 employees, the number of hospital employees thereby reached its highest value in the observed period. Total hospital employment includes the headcount of all people employed in a hospital structure and the number of full-time equivalents (FTE). These broad employment figures encompass general or specialty hospitals and self-employment or service contracts.Find more key insights for the number of hospital employees in the health sector in countries like Denmark, Portugal, and Estonia.

Forecast: Metal Structures Turnover Per Employee in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

The Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS) is a national survey of the state of employment relations and working life inside British workplaces. The 1998, 2004 and 2011 surveys (WERS98, WERS 2004, WERS 2011) are the fourth, fifth and sixth in the series, respectively, earlier surveys having been carried out in 1980, 1984 and 1990. Prior to 1998, the series was known as the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey (WIRS), the name being changed in order to better reflect the content of the current survey. The UK Data Archive hold the WIRS/WERS series from 1980 onwards under GN 33176.

The purpose of each survey in the WERS series has been to provide large-scale, statistically reliable evidence about a broad range of industrial relations and employment practices across almost every sector of the economy in Great Britain. This evidence is collected with several objectives in mind. It aims to provide a mapping of employment relations practices in workplaces across Great Britain, monitor changes in those practices over time, inform policy development and permit an informed assessment of the effects of public policy, and bring about a greater understanding of employment relations as well as of the labour market.

To that end, the cross-section element of WERS98 and WERS 2004 collected information from managers with responsibility for employment relations or personnel matters; trade union or employee representatives; and employees themselves. Thus, the surveys included the Cross-Section Survey of Managers (MQ), the Cross-Section Survey of Employee Representatives (ERQ), and the Cross-Section Survey of Employees (SEQ). The cross-section surveys in 2004 also included a Financial Performance Questionnaire (FPQ), which examined financial performance of the establishment over the 12 months previous to the survey. (Access to the FPQ data, alongside region identifiers and industry codes for the MQ and panel data, was initially restricted until April 2007, when they were deposited as part of the second edition of End User Licence (EUL) SN 5294.) The panel element of WERS 2004 includes the Screening Questionnaire and the Survey of Managers (comprising the Basic Workforce Data Sheet and the Management Interview).

The 2011 WERS sample consisted of a panel sample containing all the workplaces that had taken part in the 2004 WERS and were still in existence in 2011, and a stratified random sample of establishments drawn from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) in August 2010 (the fresh cross-section sample). The key design innovation of the 2011 WERS was the integration of the two elements so that workplaces in the panel sample were eligible for all four components of WERS 2011. Weights were devised to enable the panel sample to be combined with the fresh sample to form a combined cross-sectionally representative sample. The WERS 2011 has four components: a Survey of Managers comprising the Employee Profile Questionnaire (EPQ) and the Management Questionnaire (MQ); a Survey of Worker Representatives (WRQ); a Survey of Employees (SEQ); and a Financial Performance Questionnaire (FPQ) which detailed the financial performance of trading sector establishments in the 12 months before the survey.

Secure Access Dataset:
The Secure Access version of the study includes both the cross-section and panel surveys conducted for WERS98 and WERS 2004. The panel element for 2004 forms Wave 2 of the 1998-2004 panel survey. Wave 1 comprised the cross-sectional managers' survey conducted for WERS98. The study also includes all the WERS 2011 data

The Secure Access version includes additional variables not included in the EUL versions (see SNs 5294, 3955 and 7226). Extra variables that can be found in the Secure Access versions but not in the EUL versions relate to 1) Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers for businesses who have consented to the linking of WERS data to other data sources, 2) postcodes, and 3) in 2011 the Financial Performance Questionnaire data are available along with some other more detailed variables.

Geographical references: postcodes
The postcodes available in the 1998 data are pseudo-anonymised postcodes. The real postcodes were not available for this year due to the potential risk of identification of the observations. However, these replacement postcodes retain the inherent nested characteristics of real postcodes, and will allow researchers to aggregate observations to other geographic units, e.g. wards, super output areas, etc. The postcodes available in the 2004 and 2011 data are real postcodes.

Linking to other business studies
These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

Additional data in 2011
The 2011 data includes an additional dataset, the Financial Performance Questionnaire, which details the financial performance of trading sector establishments in the 12 months before the survey. There are also region identifiers and the country in which the workplace is located can be identified. In addition industry classification is coded to below the section-level of the Standard Industrial Classification.

Related UK Data Archive studies:
The EUL version of the WERS Cross-Section Survey, 2004 and Panel Survey, 1998-2004; Wave 2 study is held under SN 5294. The EUL version of the WERS Cross-Section Survey 1998 is held under SN 3955. The EUL version of the WERS 2011 is held under SN 7226. Further details and links to these and other WERS studies available under a standard EUL can be found on the Workplace Employee Relations Survey list of datasets webpage.

Related Websites:
The WERS sponsors have established the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Study: Information and Advice user support website for users of the WERS 2011 data. The site includes provision for users to contact the WERS research team with queries about the data.

Further information about the WERS series is also provided on the gov.uk Workplace Employment Relations Study (WERS) webpage.

For Secure Lab projects applying for access to this study as well as to SN 6697 Business Structure Database and/or SN 7683 Business Structure Database Longitudinal, only postcode-free versions of the data will be made available.

Latest edition:
For the fifth edition (August 2018), the pseudo-anonymised postcodes (NEW_PC) included in the data file 'wers2004_management_idbr_restricted' have been replaced with real postcodes (PCD2). The file contains only those cases where the respondent gave consent for data linkage (MLINKDAT=yes).

As of the fourth quarter of 2024, the employment rate in the United Kingdom was highest among 35 to 49-year-old's, with 85.8 percent of that age group employed. In the same quarter, approximately 12.1 percent of over 65s were employed, a peak for this provided time period, while the employment rate for 16 to 24s fell to 50 percent, one of the lowest rates for this age group.

BackgroundPrevious investigations suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic effects on alcohol consumption were heterogenous and may vary as a function of structural and psychological factors. Research examining mediating or moderating factors implicated in pandemic-occasioned changes in drinking have also tended to use single-study cross-sectional designs and convenience samples. Aims: First, to explore structural (changed employment or unemployment) and psychological (subjective mental health and drinking motives) correlates of consumption reported during the COVID-19 pandemic using a UK nationally representative (quota sampled) dataset. Second, to determine whether population-level differences in drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic (versus pre-pandemic levels) could be attributable to drinking motives. Method: Data collected from samples of UK adults before and during the pandemic were obtained and analysed: Step1 carried out structural equation modelling (SEM) to explore data gathered during a period of social restrictions after the UK’s first COVID-19-related lockdown (27 August-15 September, 2020; n = 3,798). It assessed whether drinking motives (enhancement, social, conformity, coping), employment and the perceived impact of the pandemic on subjective mental health may explain between-person differences in self-reported alcohol consumption. Step 2 multigroup SEM evaluated data gathered pre-pandemic (2018; n = 7,902) in concert with the pandemic data from step 1, to test the theory that population-level differences in alcohol consumption are attributable to variances in drinking motives. Results: Analyses of the 2020 dataset detected both direct and indirect effects of subjective mental health, drinking motives, and employment matters (e.g., having been furloughed) on alcohol use. Findings from a multigroup SEM were consistent with the theory that drinking motives explain not only individual differences in alcohol use at both time points, but also population-level increases in use during the pandemic. Conclusion: This work highlights socioeconomic and employment considerations when seeking to understand COVID-19-related drinking. It also indicates that drinking motives may be particularly important in explaining the apparent trend of heightened drinking during the pandemic. Limitations related to causal inference are discussed.