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15% more people working in London than at recession’s beginning, study shows

A 19% increase in high skilled jobs in London since 2008 has helped drive 15% total job growth in the capital since the recession began, according to the latest job figures from NatWest’s Regional Economic Tracker.

Technology and professional services are two of the things London does best, and the city has managed to generate an additional 350,000 high skilled jobs in the last eight years.

The ability to gather and analyse huge quantities of data makes other occupations more effective and increases demand for them, making IT specialists, managers and other professionals some of the growth hot-spots.

Along with the dramatic increase in high skilled workers – which also includes accountants, lawyers, doctors & nurses, engineers, teachers and directors –the number of people in low skilled jobs including sales & retail assistants, cleaners, lorry drivers, restaurant staff, taxi drivers and call centre workers has also risen significantly, with 17% more people employed across London.

However, one of the effects of technological advances is that the increase in medium skilled jobs, including finance assistants, care workers and teaching assistants, is only 6%.

Sebastian Burnside, Senior Economist for NatWest, said: “There are now 15% more people working in London than there were at the start of the recession. But this job growth hasn’t helped everyone to the same extent. High skilled jobs are up 19% and low skilled jobs have increased by 17%. However, the number of people working in medium skill occupations has only risen by 6%.

“The increased use of technology across the workplace helps explains these patterns. Computers and robots are replacing many routine tasks that used to be carried out by trained staff in medium skill occupations. Typists, bank clerks and office administrators are all becoming rarer while the new technologies are being created by an increasing number of high skilled workers.

“Yet not every job can be replaced by a robot. So with London growing by over a million people every 10 years, there will continue to be a need for more cooks and cleaners to look after all those extra bodies. As a result, this means that there’ll be plenty of job growth in low skilled occupations as a result.”

The NatWest Regional Economic Tracker monitors employment levels in 12 regions across the UK showing where the fastest job growth has occurred on a quarterly basis.

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