The total number of employee jobs in London rose steeply in 2022 as the capital recovered from the pandemic, adding 297,500 jobs (6%) in the year to reach 5,595,000. That was also well above the pandemic peak of 5,239,000 in 2019 (7%).

This blog delves into the detailed data based on the ONS’ Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) and Workforce Jobs (WFJ) to find out which of London’s sectors and sub-sectors saw the biggest changes over the year, and shows how job numbers have changed since 2019.

Notes on the data and terminology used

The BRES data is generally broken down into 21 sectors (although we split up the Retail, wholesale and sale of motor vehicles into Retail and Wholesale). Below is the hierarchy of data groupings used (from sector being the largest in size to classes being the smallest):

• Divisions (of which there are 88).
• Groups (of which there are 273).
• Classes (of which there are 607).

More information on the methodology of this time series is in our paper.

Key Stories

The big story of 2022 was the recovery of labour-market indicators in the hospitality sector (proxied for by Accommodation and food service activities in the data). Data releases during 2022 and 2023 appeared to show that the sector was struggling to return to pre-pandemic employment levels, but revisions to the 2022 data in late 2023 showed that job numbers began to rise strongly in mid-2022. This more recent data showed that the sector added 95,500 jobs (25%) in 2022, taking the total to 484,250. That was 55,000 more (or 13%) than in 2019.

London’s business services sectors also saw strong growth. Professional services (Professional, scientific and technical activities) added 67,000 jobs (9%) in the year, while Administrative and support service activities added 63,750 (13%) and Information and communication added 53,500, or 12% jobs.

However, Financial and insurance activities saw job numbers fall by 28,500, or 7%, (although still higher than in 2019), while Retail lost 1,500 jobs (0%) and Arts, entertainment and recreation lost 4,750 (3%).

In the following sections we examine key employment sectors in London.

The sectors with the most significant changes in employee numbers were selected. Accommodation and food services added the most jobs in 2021-2022. The rapid recovery of this sector after the pandemic is worth exploring. Professional, scientific, and technical services is the largest sector in London, with more than 800,000 employees in 2022. This sector also saw a significant increase in job numbers in 2021-2022. Administrative and support services, as well as information and communication, are also among the largest sectors, with many employees and a substantial number of jobs added during the year. Additionally, we examine the sector that lost the most jobs in 2021-2022 – financial and insurance services.

Accommodation and food service activities (+95,500 or 25% jobs year-on-year)

• Within this sector, Food and beverage service activities (division level) added 78,000 jobs, concentrated in Restaurants and mobile food service activities (class level +45,000 or 20%) and Beverage serving activities (class level +47,900 or 91%).
• Accommodation (division) added 17,500 jobs (33%), mainly from Hotels and similar accommodation (class level +16,600 or 33%).
• However, Event catering and other food service activities saw job losses (-4,700 or 16%) and (-10,300 or 29%, respectively).

Professional, scientific and technical activities (+67,000 jobs or 9%)

• Most jobs in this sector were added in Architectural and engineering activities; technical testing and analysis (division level +36,200 or 41%), specifically in Engineering activities and related technical consultancy (class level +23,300 or 41%).
• Business and other management consultancy activities (class level +23,300 or 15%) in the division of Activities of head offices; management consultancy activities (division level +20,100 or 8%) also saw large growth in jobs.

Administrative and support service activities (+63,750 jobs or 13%)

• Most jobs were added in Office administrative, office support and other business support activities (division level +35,200 or 33%), mainly in the miscellaneous business support group which includes collection agencies, packaging activities and other support services (+31,600 or 38%)
• Jobs were also added in Employment activities (division level +10,700 or 6%), mainly in Activities of employment placement agencies (class level +16,600 or 47%). But the Temporary employment agency activities (class level -6,900 or 5%) lost jobs.

Information and communication (+53,500 jobs or 12%)

• This sector now accounts for around 8.8% of all jobs in London, with the big rise in 2022 almost all added in Computer programming, consultancy and related activities (division level +45,000 or 22%). The two main classes within this division both saw high growth: in Computer consultancy activities (class level + 19,900 or 19%) and Computer programming activities (class level +19,100 or 32%).
• However, there were job losses in Information services activities (division level -11,000 or -21%), which comprises activities such as Data processing, hosting and related activities (-4,200 or 22%), Web portals (-2,200 or 15%) and News agency and other information services (-4,700 or 24%).

Financial and insurance activities: (-28,500 jobs or 7%)

• The fall in jobs in the finance sector in 2022 followed an unusually large rise (+32,750 jobs) in 2021 and takes the level of employment back to the 2019 and 2020 range.
• Since 2019, the largest changes within the sector have been a decline in Monetary intermediation (a group which contains banks, building societies and central banks, -10,800 jobs) and an increase in Fund management activities (group, +9,200 jobs).

Other sectors

• Large group/class level changes were also seen in other sections in 2022 over 2021.
• Construction of residential and non-residential buildings (group level +19,500 or 43%), mainly Construction of residential and non-residential buildings (class level +19,500 or 43%)
• Falls in many construction sector trades such as Electrical installation (class level, -4,400 or 20%) and Plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation (class level, -1,700 or 10%).
• A big increase in Retail sale of food, beverages and tobacco in specialised stores (group level +15,900 or 54%) offset by falls in Retail sale of clothing in specialised stores (class level -6,800 or 11%) and Retail sale in non-specialised stores (group, -7,600 or 5%).
• Overall, Retail jobs fell by 1,500 or 0%, while Wholesale (excluding motor vehicles) rose by 9,500 jobs (6%) and the motor trades (Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles) fell by 3,400 or 9% jobs to its lowest level (33,200) since 2012.
• In Transportation and storage (section level, +6,250 or 3% jobs) the most noteworthy change was the rebound of 7,500 jobs (27%) in Passenger air transport back to its pre-pandemic level of around 35,000 jobs).
• In non-market services – Public administration, Human health and social work and Education there was little overall change on the year (the three sections together adding 7,750 or 1% jobs) although together they have added 95,500 jobs (9%) since 2019.
• Other services, the level of employment in Repair of computers and personal household goods (division level) more than doubled from its 2019 level to 16,500 jobs, driven last year by Repair of computers and peripheral equipment (class, +6,800 or 227%).
• Finally, Hairdressing and beauty treatment had a good year, adding another 2,200 jobs (7%) to reach 32,500, more than double the first year of the series in 1998.