Employment by occupation
Published
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1. Main facts and figures
- the types of occupation people have varies between ethnic groups
- in 2016, a larger percentage of the Black/Black British and Other ethnic groups worked in the lowest-skilled occupations (elementary occupations) than White people did
Things you need to know
These employment figures are estimates based on the Annual Population Survey (APS).
The APS uses results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
In January to March 2011, changes were made to the LFS ethnicity questions. This was to bring them more in line with census data collection on these topics. Further changes were made to the ethnicity questions in April to June 2011.
Therefore, there may be inconsistencies when comparing the survey estimates before and after 2011.
Keep in mind when making comparisons between ethnic groups that all survey estimates are subject to a degree of uncertainty, as they are based on a sample of the population.
The degree of uncertainty is greater when the number of respondents is small, so it will be highest for minority ethnic groups.
Where estimates have a group sample size smaller than 10, the values have been suppressed for quality assurance purposes.
The estimates given here are annual estimates.
The APS is a ‘sample survey’. It collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach 'findings') about the total population.
The commentary for this data includes only reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings. Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they can be repeated, and are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample.
Specifically, the statistical tests used mean we can be confident that if we carried out the same survey on different random samples of the population, 19 times out of 20 we would get similar findings.
As with all surveys, the estimates from the APS are subject to a degree of uncertainty as they are based on a sample of the population. The degree of uncertainty is greater when the number of respondents is small, so it will be highest for ethnic minority groups.
Smaller numbers of survey respondents from ethnic minority backgrounds mean that estimates for all Other ethnic groups are more unreliable than estimates for White people (which includes White British and White ethnic minorities).
Results taken from a low number of responses are more likely to be affected by statistical variation, so observed changes might not reflect real differences. As such, caution is needed when interpreting short-term trends in the data, especially for sub-groups (for example, a specific ethnic group, age group and gender).
When looking at data for ‘All’ groups, any values based on fewer than 30 responses have been withheld, and when further breaking down the data by ethnicity, any values based on fewer than 100 responses have been withheld. This is to protect confidentiality or because the numbers involved are too small to draw any reliable conclusions.
Data is taken from the APS to get more specific data such as detail about local authority areas. Broader figures may differ slightly from reports published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics that also use the LFS.
What the data measures
The data measures the percentage of people in each ethnic group who work in particular types of occupation. It includes workers who are employed or self-employed.
The percentages are of the total number of people in that ethnic group who work in the UK.
The graphs and table show data for 2016 only. However, you can download data covering 2004 to 2016 in the source data (CSV) file.
Within the ‘Caring, leisure and other service occupations’ group, ‘other’ includes occupations such as travel agent, hairdresser, housekeeper and cleaner.
The ethnic categories used in this data
Although data is collected for 18 ethnic groups, analysis by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is grouped under these broad ethnic categories:
- White
- Black/Black British
- Mixed/Multiple ethnic groups
- Indian
- Pakistani/Bangladeshi
- Other (which contains Chinese, other Asian and other ethnic groups)
Grouping in this way improves the reliability of the estimates and allows robust samples to be used.
BEIS’s analysis differentiates between the Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups, and the Indian group, to reflect the different employment-related outcomes among Asians.
This is in line with other publications on the official labour market statistics website, Nomis.
2. Employment in occupations by ethnicity
| Occupation | All | Indian | Pakistani/ Bangladeshi | Black | Mixed | White | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | % | % | % | % | % | % | |
| Administrative & secretarial | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 11 | 7 |
| Associate professional & technical | 14 | 13 | 11 | 12 | 19 | 15 | 12 |
| Caring, leisure and other services | 9 | 6 | 6 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 10 |
| Elementary | 11 | 9 | 11 | 16 | 11 | 11 | 14 |
| Managers, directors & senior officials | 11 | 11 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 10 |
| Process, plant & machine operatives | 7 | 6 | 17 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 7 |
| Professional | 20 | 32 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 20 | 24 |
| Sales & consumer service | 8 | 8 | 13 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 10 |
| Skilled trades | 11 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 7 |
Download table data for ‘Employment in occupations by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Employment in occupations by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Employment by occupation Employment in occupations by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- in 2016, a larger percentage of the Black/Black British (16%) and Other (14%) ethnic groups worked in the lowest-skilled occupations (elementary occupations) than White workers did (11%)
- in 2016, the Pakistani/Bangladeshi ethnic group had the highest percentage of workers in the 3 lowest-skilled occupation groups combined, at 41%: these were the elementary (11%), process, plant and machine operatives (17%) and sales and consumer service (13%) occupations
- 17% of Black/Black British people worked in caring, leisure and other service occupations – the largest percentage of any ethnic group
- 32% of Indian workers were in professional occupations, a higher percentage than any other ethnic group
3. Methodology
The APS contains 12 months of survey data.
It combines data from 4 successive quarters of the Labour Force Survey with rolling-year data from the local labour force surveys for England, Wales and Scotland.
The sample size is approximately 320,000 respondents.
Interviews are carried out either face-to-face or by telephone.
Weighting
Surveys seek information about a particular group of people – we call this the target population.
Every target population will have a particular age and gender profile – for example, teachers are predominantly female and under 50. Some target populations will also have a regional profile – for example, they might be clustered in a particular part of the country.
Surveys collect information from a random sample of the target population to make generalisations (reach ‘findings’) about everyone within that population.
For those findings to be reliable, the sample of people should ideally contain the same mix of age, gender and regional location as the target population.
Where this isn’t the case (because some people haven’t responded, for example) analysts use statistical tools to ‘weight’ the data. Weighting rebalances the survey responses so they represent the target population more accurately. They can then be used to reach meaningful conclusions.
The APS is weighted to reflect the size and composition of the general population, by using the most up-to-date official population data.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy has suppressed:
- estimates and confidence intervals that have a group sample size smaller than 10
- estimates for where the number of people employed is less than 500
Rounding
Data on percentages has been rounded to whole numbers. Due to rounding, percentages may not add up to 100%.
Related publications
Labour Force Survey quality methodology information
Annual Population Survey quality methodology information
4. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Office for National Statistics
Note on corrections or updates
Higher-level figures may differ from those published by the Department for Work and Pensions and the Office for National Statistics that use the Labour Force Survey.
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The Annual Population Survey (APS) is the largest ongoing household survey in the UK and covers a range of topics, including:
- personal characteristics
- labour market status
- work characteristics
- education
- health
The purpose of the APS is to provide information on important social and socio-economic variables at local levels, such as labour market estimates.
The published statistics also allow the government to monitor estimates on a range of issues between censuses.
5. Download the data
This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, denominator, numerator, confidence intervals