Over the last 100 years the face of recruitment has changed exponentially. Technology has driven a meteoric change in the way the world works, and as a result the type of roles that people are employed to do has continued to evolve.
Using census records from 1911 and 2011, we take a look at just how dramatically the UK’s top jobs have changed over the last 100 years.
The 1911 Census
Marking the end of the first decade of the twentieth century, 1911 saw the world on the cusp of its first world war, the coronation of George V and the world’s first airmail flight. The UK was still riding the wave of the industrial revolution, with booming textile and mining industries. The top 10 jobs in 1911 ranked in order were:
- Female domestic indoor servants
- Textile manufacturers
- Coal and other miner
- Farm workers
- Carmen / carters / wagon men
- Cotton manufacturers
- Local government employees
- Grocers
- Merchant Seamen, bargemen, dock labourers
- Wool manufacturers
Present Day
100 years later, and the landscape is unrecognisable to those living and working in 1911. With the next census due in 2021, we take a look at the results from 2011 – a time when the USA’s first African-American President was nearing the end of his first term in office, the UK was preparing to host its third Olympic games, the US tested a missile that could travel at five times the speed of sound and the world’s first synthetic organ transplant was successfully completed in Sweden. 2011’s top 10 jobs were:
- Sales and retail assistants
- Cleaners and domestics
- Care workers and home carers
- Other administrative occupations
- Nurses
- Elementary storage occupations
- Kitchen and catering assistants
- Personal assistants and other secretaries
- Managers and directors in retail and wholesale
- Primary and nursery education teaching professionals
Over the last 100 years, the UK’s top jobs have completely changed. The decline in agricultural and industrial-focused jobs are indicative of how technology has replaced a number of these roles. However, domestic and cleaning roles remained a large source of employment for people in 2011, as they were in 1911.
Not only have the top 10 jobs changed, but the census itself has evolved over the last 100 years; in 1911 the government simply wanted to know your occupation, industry and status in terms of employment, whereas the 2011 census included 15 detailed questions on work. Now the census gathers far more comprehensive information about the jobs people are in.
While the type of jobs have changed, so has the recruitment sector. The internet has changed recruitment beyond recognition, and over the next decade new technologies will continue to evolve the way in which recruiters target candidates. Recruitment is now carried out a lot faster and on a much larger scale, with tools such as Skype allowing candidates to be interviewed from anywhere in the world, and candidates now have better access to the roles that are right for them.
Stay tuned to our blog for more insights from the last 100 years of recruitment.
