About this data

Source: Bank of England, A millennium of macroeconomic data for the UK (version 3.1); ONS, Workforce jobs by industry (JOBS02) and by region and industry (JOBS05), September 2026

• Up to 1977, the Bank of England's series, which joins census counts and employer surveys (Broadberry et al., Feinstein and ONS). From 1978, ONS's workforce jobs, in June each year.
• Figures are for census years up to 1911, and every year from 1921. Up to 1911, they include all of Ireland.
• Classifications of industries have changed several times, so the boundaries between sectors aren't exactly the same throughout.

This chart appears in Employment and wages.