Skills Imperative 2035
The Skills Imperative 2035: Essential skills for tomorrow’s workforce research programme
The global economy faces significant shifts in the coming decades. New technologies, coupled with major demographic and environmental change, are predicted to disrupt the economy and the labour market in various ways. This will have a significant impact in the next 10 to 15 years and beyond, both in terms of jobs and the skills needed to do them.
The impact of these drivers of change on the economy and labour market is expected to be one of the pre-eminent strategic challenges that the UK and wider global economy will face in the future. But the nature of the change in demand for jobs and skills in the future UK labour market is not currently well understood. The Skills Imperative 2035: Essential skills for tomorrow's workforce, programme, aims to address this information gap. This research programme has been led by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
As part of this research programme, there was a need to estimate what the future size and composition of the labour market would be in future. The Institute, working in collaboration with Cambridge Econometrics (CE), have produced such periodic assessments in their Working Futures series. A new set of projections was developed to support the research programme. These projections, represent the latest in a series of quantitative assessments of the employment prospects in the UK labour market over a 10-15-year horizon. Problems with some of the official data published by the Office for National Statistics led to the need to further update these results, which have now been published by the Department for Education and SkillsLink opens in a new window.
The projections present historical trends and future prospects by sector for the UK and its constituent nations and the English regions, as well as selected results for some sub-regional areas. The prime focus of The Skills Imperative 2035 projections is on the demand for skills as measured by employment by occupation and qualification, although the supply side is also considered. Their prime objective was to provide a sound quantitative foundation for the wider research programme.
They also provide an update to the labour market information (LMI) previously delivered by Working Futures. This LMI aims to inform policy development and strategy around skills, careers and employment, for both policy makers and a much wider audience. The results are intended to provide a sound statistical foundation for reflection and debate among all those with an interest in the demand for and supply of skills. This information will also be used to update the data used in the Labour Market Information for All portalLink opens in a new window.
Caution in interpreting the projections
Please note that these projections are based on employment estimates derived from published labour market data. They are not precise predictions of future employment levels, but represent the most likely trajectory of labour market change, given long-term trends in the economy and explicit assumptions about likely future economic change.
This page provides access to reports and workbooks from the latest in a series of projections of employment.
The results from the first seven Working Futures exercises (undertaken for the UK Commission for Employment and Skills or Department for Education) are available from the IER "Working Futures" webpageLink opens in a new window.
The full set of reports and Excel workbooks produced by Working Futures 2017-2027 are available from Working Futures 2017-2027Link opens in a new window
Published reports and workbooks from the Skills Imperative 2035 project can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below:
