Skills England Identifies 62 Critical Demand Occupations Across the UK Labour Market

New data reveals 5.1 million workers employed in occupations with substantially higher demand than usual

Skills England has today published its latest Occupations in Demand statistics, revealing that 62 occupations are in critical demand across the UK labour market, employing 5.1 million workers (15.4% of UK employment).

The report, which uses five labour market indicators to measure employment demand, shows that a further 125 occupations are in elevated demand, accounting for 10.9 million workers (32.9% of UK employment).

Key Findings:

• Specialist medical practitioners show the highest demand across all occupations, with 4 out of 5 indicators in critical demand
• Health and social care has the largest number of workers in high demand occupations (2.7 million)
• Information and communication has the highest proportion of workers in high demand occupations (66.8%)
• 74.8% of workers in critical demand occupations require training below degree level

The largest critical demand occupations by worker numbers include book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks (381,000), sales accounts and business development managers (352,000), and marketing, sales and advertising directors (269,000).

Industry Breakdown

In health and social care, the three largest occupations in high demand are:

• Care workers and home carers (809,000)
• Generalist medical practitioners (148,000)
• Specialist medical practitioners (110,000)

In information and communication, the three largest occupations in high demand are:

• Programmers and software development professionals (272,000)
• IT business analysts, architects and systems designers (70,000)
• Information technology directors (66,000)

Skills Level Breakdown

Of the 5.1 million workers in critical demand occupations:

• 52.3% are at ONS skill level 3 (level 3-5)
• 25.2% are at ONS skill level 4 (level 6+)
• 20.2% are at ONS skill level 2 (level 2)
• 2.4% are at ONS skill level 1 (below level 2)

Methodology Updates

This release introduces significant methodology changes based on user feedback, meaning results should not be compared with the previous release. The new approach assesses occupations relative to historical trends and accounts for data uncertainty, providing greater transparency over individual indicators’ contributions to demand classifications.

The analysis uses five demand indicators: visa grant density, online job advert density, annual percentage change in hourly wage, wage premium, and annual change in hours worked. More occupations are in critical demand for online job advert density and annual percentage change in hourly wage indicators, compared with annual change in hours worked, visa grant density, or wage premium.

Important Note: This publication assesses the current level of demand for an occupation, not where there is a shortage of workers.

The full report, including detailed occupation breakdowns and methodology, is available here.