In March 2021, among the nine broad occupation groups, North East residents were most likely to be employed in professional or associate professional and technical occupations. About 31% of workers were in these two groups. Each of the other groups had between 8% and 11% of workers.
Despite the large numbers of professionals and associate professionals in the North East, they made up a smaller percentage of workers than in England excluding London. The same was true for workers in managerial and skilled trades occupations.
In 2021, the North East was home to about 4.8% of the workers in sales and customer services occupations in England excluding London but to only 3.1% of those in managerial occupations.
Within the North East, in 2021:
- Northumberland had the highest percentages of resident workers in managerial occupations, skilled trades and in caring, leisure and related service occupations
- Newcastle had the highest percentages in both professional and elementary occupations
- North Tyneside had the highest percentages in associate professional and technical occupations and in administrative and secretarial occupations
- Sunderland had the highest percentages in sales and customer service occupations and among process, plant and machine operatives.
Detailed occupations
The initial census release provides information about residence-based employment in more than 100 occupations. Most of these had more than 1,000 workers from the North East in 2021 with 57 occupations having more than 5,000, of which 25 have more than 10,000.
The occupations with the largest number of North East workers include:
- functional and production managers and directors
- teaching professionals; nurses and midwifes; IT professionals
- sales and marketing associate professionals
- administrative occupations in government and finance; secretarial occupations
- skilled trades in construction and building
- caring personal services
- sales assistants and retail cashiers; customer service occupations
- road transport drivers
- elementary cleaning occupations; other elementary service occupations including in hospitality and leisure.
The occupations in which the North East can be said to have a specialism are those where the area's percentage of employment in England excluding London is highest.
- the occupation where this percentage is highest is government related administration
- the 25 occupations with the highest percentages include five skilled trades occupations and five process, plant and machine operative occupations, with particular North East specialisms in metal working and construction
- they also includes specific sales and customer service occupations, as well as professionals and associate professionals in medical and welfare and carers.
Socio-economic classifications
The Office for National Statistics uses information about an adult's current or most recent occupation of employment to define their socio-economic classification (NS-SEC). Where this information is not available the classification uses economic activity data.
In this analysis there are nine broad NS-SEC groups. In the North East in 2021, the largest of these groups included adults in lower managerial, administrative and professional occupations. The second and third largest groups were routine and semi-routine occupations. Together, these three groups included almost 45% of North East adults.
Compared to England excluding London, the North East had a particularly large percentage of adults who had never worked or were long-term unemployed.
Within the North East, in 2021 North Tyneside had the highest percentages of adults within the two managerial, administrative and professional categories. Newcastle had the highest percentage of full-time students. South Tyneside and Sunderland had the highest percentages of adults who had never worked or were long-term unemployed.
Further information
The occupation variable in the census classifies people aged 16 plus who were in employment between 15 March and 21 March 2021 by the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code that represented their occupation. The SOC code is based on information provided by the respondent.
The initial census release is residence-based, providing information that is not available at such a detailed level from other surveys. Quarterly workplace-based occupation data provides local information about 25 occupation groups.
Future releases will provide information about the characteristics of workers in different occupations. In particular, there will be age breakdowns and details of differences in full- and part- time working. There will also be occupation data based on the workplace rather than the residence of the worker.
Mapping employment by occupation
The ONS interactive census map shown below is embedded in this and other Evidence Hub pages. It allows users to view geographical patterns in census datasets interactively.
We have set up the map to show the percentage of adults in each local authority area employed in professional occupations in 2021. However, the occupation group being mapped can be changed using the controls. In addition, the zoom function can be used to view patterns for small areas for each variable.
For more information about this mapping tool, visit the ONS website.