LinkedIn has released data that shines a spotlight on the jobs experiencing huge growth in the UK and what this means for the workforce. The analysis is based on all LinkedIn members with a public profile that held a full-time position within the UK during the past five years.
The data shows that artificial intelligence and tech roles are among the UK’s fastest-growing jobs. As technology becomes increasingly present in our day-to-day lives, roles like Artificial Intelligence Specialist are becoming crucial. Similarly, the introduction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) this year and the increasing consumer awareness of personal data, has created high demand for roles like Data Protection Officers.
However, the top emerging jobs aren’t limited to the tech space. Roles such as User Researcher, Customer Success Specialist and Content Designer make the top 15, and sectors including HR and marketing are also recruiting jobs on the list. Whilst there has been significant growth in tech-led jobs, there’s also a growing number of roles that require soft skills and more of a human touch.
The top-15 emerging jobs in the UK are:
- Artificial Intelligence Specialist
- Data Protection Officer
- Robotics Engineer
- Site Reliability Engineer
- Customer Success Specialist
- User Researcher
- Data Scientist
- Sales Development Representative
- Cloud Engineer
- Cyber Security Specialist
- Platform Engineer
- Full Stack Engineer
- Enterprise Account Executive
- DevOps Engineer
- Content Designer
“It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence and data protection roles are growing throughout the UK.” Says Mariano Mamertino, Senior Economist at LinkedIn. “As technology continues to advance at a pace, Artificial Intelligence Specialists will become even more crucial across multiple roles and sectors. Today, there is 18 times more talent employed in this role in the UK than in 2015.
“Similarly, as data privacy concerns have grown, so has demand for talent to fill roles such as Data Protection Officer and Cyber Security Specialist. As we move into the second year of the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation, we can only expect these roles to increase,” Mariano observes. “But whilst tech roles dominate, the importance of the human touch persists. We are also seeing growth in customer-facing support industries such as Customer Success Specialist to support the more tech-orientated roles.”
The data also shows a distinct gender gap. Currently, over 65 per cent of all these emerging roles, across all the industries employing them, are held by men, with financial services (80 males to 20 females) and telecommunications (81 males to 19 females) showing the greatest imbalance.
Whilst over 44 per cent of professionals working in emerging roles in the UK are based in London, smaller cities are seeing growth too. Belfast (+39 per cent), Cardiff (+35 per cent) and Nottingham (+35 per cent) had the largest year-on-year growth in these emerging jobs.