Employment characteristics

Self-employment

The incidence of self-employment has fallen over the past two years – particularly amongst IT specialists where a fall of 4 percentage points has occurred over the 2019-21 period (from 11% to 7%). By 2021 it is estimated that there were approximately 126,000 IT specialists working on a self-employed basis in the UK.

For both IT specialists and other workers, the incidence of self-employment was found to be higher amongst individuals that were from older age groups - the difference being three percentage points amongst IT specialists and five percentage points for all workers.

Age and the incidence of self-employment (2021)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS

Employees and size of workplace

IT specialists working as employees are, perhaps understandably, more likely than others to be employed within larger workplaces^[2] (i.e. as micro / small sites are less likely to have an in-house function) and whilst just 29% of UK employees as a whole were working in larger sites during 2021 (those with 250 or more staff), a figure of 44% was recorded for IT specialist employees.

This observation was also true for older IT specialists in 2021 – again 44% of which were working in larger workplaces during 2021.

Age and size of workplace (2021)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS

As illustrated in the chart above, IT specialists aged 50+ were much more likely than others to be working in micro business sites with comparison figure in this case of 18% and 14% respectively during 2021 (for employees aged 50+ / under 50).

Industry of employment

Almost four in ten IT specialists (38%) over 50 years of age were working in IT businesses in 2021 as were those aged 16-49 (39%). After IT, the next largest employment sector for IT specialists aged 50+ in 2021 was banking / finance (22%) followed by the public sector (17%) and this was also true for IT specialists as a whole.

Looking in more detail at the levels of representation for older IT specialists in different industries, it can be seen that representation was highest in transport / communications (27%) and lowest amongst energy / water and distribution / hotels / restaurant businesses (17%).

Age by occupation and industry (2021)

Source: Analysis of ONS Quarterly Labour Force Survey by BCS
* Five-year average

^[2] The LFS asks individuals about the number of employees at their workplace as opposed to enterprise / organisation as a whole.