To look at employment across a range of occupations, we need to look at statistics collected under a different classification system, the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC).

SOC data are collected at a number of different levels, including Major groups and Minor groups.

So, computer programmers are included in a Major Group called Science, Research, Engineering and Technology Professionals. This includes in turn:

• Natural and Social Science Professionals
• Engineering Professionals
• Information Technology and Telecommunications Professionals
• Conservation and Environment Professionals
• Research and Development Managers

Information Technology and Telecommunications Professionals includes:

• IT specialist managers
• IT business analysts, architects and systems designers
• Programmers and software development professionals
• Web design and development professionals
• Information technology and telecommunications professionals

Got it!

ONS makes it very easy to select and download data at a SOC Major group level. This time you need to select the ‘detailed statistics’ box and select either the ‘Wizard query’ or the ‘Advanced query’. We have used these tools to download data about the SOC major employment groups for the Reading area and for the different countries of the UK over the past five years. You can download the data here.

We have used Google charts to visualise some of these data.

This chart shows employment for Science, Research, Engineering and Technology Professionals in the UK between June 2005 and June 2011.

Despite the recession employment has increased in this occupational group.

For comparison, lets look at the employment in the occupational group called ‘Skilled Construction and Building Trades’ in the UK over the same period.

You will see that with the onset of the recession, employment has fallen quite dramatically (although you should note that the horizontal axis is not showing the same scale as in the previous chart).

Finally, in this section, here are two more charts showing the same data for the Reading Local Authority area.

These charts show us the limits of information alone and the need for intelligent interpretation. Firstly, though a caveat, if you have downloaded the full spreadsheet, you will note that the statisticians calculate the confidence they have in the figures. The degree of confidence in the national figures is far higher than that in the figures for Reading, as the sample is much larger. However, that is not enough to explain the differences between the national and Reading figures.

One issue may be that the occupational classifications were revised in 2010 and although the statistics have been recalculated to reflect that, it may be that some jobs previously classified as Science, Research, Engineering and Technology Professionals are now counted as Science, Research, Engineering and Technology Associate Professionals. Employment in that category grew from 1,500 in 2010 to 3,700 in 2011!

Employment in the Skilled Construction and Building Trades seems to be bucking national trends in Reading, possibly reflecting a number of major new construction projects in the area?

More detailed data

Although more detailed occupational data are collected, this is not so easy to obtain or to interpret. However, if you want to have a go you could download this spreadsheet of data collected under the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, which provides indicative numbers of people employed by minor (and more detailed) occupations.

The Sector Skills Councils, representing different occupational sectors, also produce regular reports on data. You can access the different Sector Skills Councils websites here.