The UK is Europe’s second-largest economy, recently overtaking France and setting itself up to become the continent’s largest by 2030. Recent data presented in the Office for National Statistics labour market overview indicates there are 29.5 million employees in the UK as of January 2022. The UK remained the world’s fifth-largest economy throughout the challenges of 2020, behind the obvious powerhouses of the United States, China, Japan and Germany. The UK economy has recently expanded at its fastest pace since World War II, and this expansion has made Britain the fastest growing advanced economy, as of 2021. But who are the major economic players in this country, which industries are leading the way? Take a look at some interesting facts and recent data about the UK’s top 10 industries.

Finance and banking

Latest data indicates that the financial services sector comprises 3% of all jobs in the United Kingdom, with 1.1 million people working in the industry as of Q1 2021. The banking industry covers the retail and commercial banking activities of deposit-taking institutions, and the UK’s banks, specifically, employ 278,504 people. Banking’s current market size (raw monetary value from total sales) sits at £92bn. Additionally, economic revenue from the UK’s banks amount to £76.2bn. Outside of London, the UK’s main financial centres are in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham. Currently, banking alone accounts for 4.2% of the country’s GDP.

Information Technology

Nearly every major industry relies on modern technology to function, making the importance of the technology sector difficult to underestimate. As of late 2021, the total market size for computer consultants alone was £58bn in the UK, currently providing an economic revenue of £46.2bn. The most recent data indicates that the IT sector accounted for 4% of all the UK’s jobs. There were 940k Britons employed in IT, software and computer services in 2021, with 418,657 specifically employed in computer consultancy. As the knowledge-based economy becomes a reality, it is expected that nearly half of the UK’s GDP will come from this sector within the next decade.

Construction

This industry is generally tied in lockstep with the general economic prosperity of a country, and the UK is no exception. According to the latest data, the construction industry currently accounts for 5.5% of the United Kingdom’s total GDP. As of 2022, the construction industry holds a combined market size of £120bn, providing economic revenue of £100.7bn to the UK’s coffers. Construction-related employment represents 6% of total UK jobs, employed across approximately 914,000 construction sector business enterprises. In fact, construction contractors alone comprise 572,669 of the UK’s workers.

Healthcare

The market size, or raw value, of hospitals in the UK currently account for £112bn of the country’s total GDP. The economic revenue yielded by the UK’s healthcare market stands at £87.9bn. According to the Office for National Statistics, around 1.9 million people worked in healthcare-related positions throughout the country in 2018, which means that 6.2% of the UK’s entire 30.5 million working population were employed in this sector at the time. Narrowed down to those employed directly by hospitals, such as doctors, nurses, and paramedics, these roles were filled by 838,617 workers in 2021. Expanding this scope, general health and social care workers account for 13% of the UK’s total job number at present. As increased demand puts more pressure on public health services, private healthcare firms have also been seen to expand and become a crucial economic player. 

Wholesale and Retail

This sector has experienced no small resurgence in recent times, due in part to supermarkets being the prime supplier of food after government restrictions on imports throughout 2020 and 2021. Supermarkets in the UK currently generate economic revenues of £171.1bn from a total captured market size of £188bn. The entirety of the combined retail and wholesale industries is the UK’s largest sector of employment, representing 14% of the UK’s total job number. Supermarkets alone presently employ 1,220,923 workers and the retail industry generally, being the UK’s largest private sector employer, holds roughly 3 million workers in their ranks. 

New Cars, Light Motor Vehicle (LMV) Dealers and Transportation

The UK car market has been especially booming in recent times, mirroring what has been seen in much of the rest of the world. This is due to the gradual easing of supply chain disruptions, broad automotive manufacturing revivals, and robust demand for new and used cars due to international travel restrictions. Total economic revenue in this sector in 2022 is represented by £81.3bn from a combined market size of £101bn. At the end of 2021, 103,098 people worked in car sales in the UK. Currently, the transportation industry sector represents 5% of total UK jobs. 

Pension Funding

This sector is a relatively new emergent top industry for the UK, only really making moves to enter the conversation in the last decade. Pension funding’s total revenue share of GDP has been increasing over the last few years, and is calculated from a combination of fund contributions plus investment returns. As of 2022, the total market size of pension funds is £156bn, providing an economic revenue of £128.8bn to the UK’s GDP. At present, there are 39,462 people employed in this industry in the UK, with 55,477 total businesses engaged in pension funding. This disparity in figures is certainly indicative of the high volume of sole traders in this industry.

General Insurance

Like the pension funding industry prior, general insurance is a relative newcomer to the UK’s top industries, despite comprising all insurance activities across the country. The total economic revenue contribution from the general insurance industry is £59.8bn, derived from a combined market size of £74bn. Insurance entities offer their services and products to private and commercial clients across the UK, and they produce insurance policies in relation to health, property, income, liability, compensation and other broad concerns. 

Management Consultancy

This industry covers a broader range of activities than are apparent from its name, including business consultancy areas such as HR, organisational planning, operational processes, and strategy. Areas relating to finance, legal, engineering, and educational management are excluded. Management consultancy’s market size is calculated at £70bn, providing an economic revenue of £55.9bn. Despite the healthy market figures for the industry, there have been some noticeable contractions – at least in terms of the numbers of people employed in management consultancy – with May 2022 employment figures of 428,948 having dropped from the previous year’s number of 443,799. Currently, management consultants represent 1.45% of the UK’s total jobs. This industry’s total revenue is expected to explode out to £64bn in coming years, with the increased demand for IT services and the downstream impacts of regulatory changes on the financial services sector being the likeliest contributors to this gain. 

Pharmaceutical Wholesaling

The pharmaceutical industry is a largely volatile one, with drastic fluctuations in its performance being more noticeable over shorter time spans when compared to some of the UK’s other major industries. At present, pharma wholesaling is calculated as holding a combined market share of £65bn, providing a total revenue of £51.2bn to GDP. The UK’s pharmaceutical market is in the global top 10 markets, comprising 2.5% of the entire global sector in 2019. There were 2,709 pharmaceutical wholesalers in the country in this same year, with more recent data showing that there are 75,203 people working in the industry across these wholesalers. Future-term growth is expected to be supported by an ageing population, more focus on personal wellbeing, new scientific breakthroughs, and emerging social trends.

Sources

• https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8353/ 
• https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/january2022
• https://www.statista.com/topics/3795/gdp-of-the-uk/
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-11/u-k-covid-rebound-sees-best-annual-growth-since-world-war-two
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/banks-industry/
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/computer-consultants-industry/
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/industry-trends/biggest-industries-by-revenue/
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/284968/it-software-and-computer-services-economy-employment-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/
• https://www.statista.com/statistics/677151/uk-construction-businesses-by-size/
• https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/articles/internationalmigrationandthehealthcareworkforce/2019-08-15
• https://connects.world/the-top-20-uk-industries-in-2021/
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/supermarkets-industry/
• https://brc.org.uk/media/54304/retail_2020_-final.pdf
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/new-car-light-motor-vehicle-dealers-industry/
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/pension-funding-industry/
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/general-insurance-industry/
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/management-consultants-industry/
• https://www.statista.com/topics/5056/pharmaceutical-industry-in-the-uk/#dossierKeyfigures
• https://www.ibisworld.com/united-kingdom/market-research-reports/pharmaceutical-wholesaling-industry/