A-levels: how have the most common jobs in England and Wales changed in a decade?

It's A-levels results day meaning many students will be eagerly waiting to see how their results match with their future ambitions. Whether students are planning to study further at university or get straight into work, a future career will be in their thoughts - and in the minds of their parents!

Some who have received their A-level result may be looking at careers in business, finance or the health service - some of the UK's biggest job sectors - and it may be good to know how prevelant these jobs are today compared to the past.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) from 2021 - the latest available on the UK's top 10 industry divisions - may include some jobs that are surprise inclusions.

Here we compare jobs from 2011 to what is popular on the market today.

ONS data lists the following jobs as the most popular in 2011:

1. Retail trade (except of motor vehicles)
2. Education
3. Construction of buildings, civil engineering
4. Human health activities
5. Public administration and defence
6. Food and beverage service activities
7. Social work activities
8. Wholesale trade (except motor vehicles and motorcycles)
9. Land transport and transport via pipelines
10. Financial service activities (except insurance and pension funding)

It can be seen how the top 10 jobs then shift slightly a decade later - especially with computer programming entering the list.

A Sky News article from June 2023 cites computer programming as having the biggest rise in new workers. An additional 274,00 people work in the field compared with 2011.

The top ten jobs in 2021 - and the number of workers - were:

1. Retail trade (except of motor vehicles) - 2,844,000
2. Education - 2,733,000
3. Human health activities - 2,482,000
4. Construction of buildings, civil engineering - 2,406,000
5. Public administration and defence - 1,674,000
6. Social work activities - 1,177,000
7. Food and beverage service - 1,150,000
8. Computer programming and consultancy - 790,000
9. Wholesale trade (except motor vehicles) - 769,000
10. Services to buildings and landscape activities - 708,000

Of the jobs listed here, only 25.7% were considered "professional jobs" in 2021 - the occupations with the highest earners.

Employment website Indeed has also drawn up its own list of the top UK professions in 2023 based on listings on its site.

1. Teacher
2. Administrator
3. Graphic designer
4. Account manager
5. Delivery driver
6. Manager
7. Executive Assistant
8. Data analyst
9. Accountant
10. Mechanical engineer
11. Business analyst
12. Project manager
13. Data scientist
14. Software engineer
15. Consultant

With technology playing an increasing role in the availability of different jobs, the job market could once again look very different in 2031.