Future employment and skills

If you are thinking about employment prospects following university for your son or daughter, it is not present employment that is likely to concern you, but employment in the future. Working this out is not so easy, especially in the present economic climate.

You may want to look at the UK Commission for Employment and Skills Almanac Online, which has detailed data on industries, qualifications and skills including future skills and employment projections.

Besides the general state of the economy, future employment ina particular occupation will be affected by a variety of factors, including:

• the size of an occupational group – even if jobs are declining and the occupational group is large, there will still be considerable future demand
• the demographic structure of an occupation – an older workforce will need more new employees to replace those retiring
• changes in technology – technology is both leading to reductions of jobs in some sectors and the creation of new jobs in others