For years, the UK’s economy was dominated by the retail, finance, hospitality, and health industries. And yet, the economy and labor markets are constantly evolving — especially in the 2020s, a decade characterized by both social and technological advances that affect all industries. In the last few years, we have witnessed the development of entirely new business segments and technologies, and while there are many factors affecting industry growth, one of the clearest indicators is an increased job demand in a specific industry.
At SignalHire, a professional contact database primarily used by recruiters, sales, and marketers, we have access to the most recent data on the latest job searches – and consequently, vacancies UK recruiters were trying to fill in 2024. This info, combined with external analytics from official UK government resources, is a good indicator of the UK industry growth trends, so let’s see which British business segments show the most promise.
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A brief overlook of the UK economy
According to a late July 2024 report from the House of Commons Library, the UK GDP growth has already exceeded early 2024 forecasts. While the original 2024 estimate stood at 0.4%, the actual figure reached 0.7% in the first quarter of the year and, by July, rose to 0.9%.
The Office of National Statistics is highly optimistic about this development, reporting the highest GDP estimates since the pandemic. And even though, objectively, the growth rate remains rather modest, the higher-than-expected figure clearly shows an upward development, largely supported by increased consumer confidence. The latter is, in turn, supported by the inflation rate returning to the Bank of England’s objective of 2%. Compared to the October 2022 peak of 11+%, this is, indeed, a promising trend.
However, despite clear positive developments, some challenges do remain. The UK unemployment rate, for instance, remains at 4.2% as of August 2024, which, in itself, is not an alarming figure. However, the salary growth remains rather slow — the pure increase is estimated at 5.7% in mid-2024, but considering the inflation rate, the ‘netto’ growth estimate barely exceeds two percent.
Besides, the higher-than-expected GDP growth rate is largely explained by the unequal speed at which different UK industries are recovering. Some industries, especially segments the country traditionally excelled at, like finance, are quicker to recover. Others, like manufacturing, require a larger momentum and are, expectedly, slower to reach their pre-pandemic indicators. But while the top industries 2024 UK pace is not uniform across different sectors, it’s clear that the economy, on the whole, gradually leaves the recession behind.
This positive change is mostly brought on by several high-growth markets UK has been traditionally associated with. Below, we list the leading industries stimulating the UK’s economic recovery in 2024.
Customer Service
Average growth: 2,113
Median weekly earnings: £403
Compared to the consuming peak during the pandemic, today’s growth of the customer service industry looks modest, but, on the upside, it is far steadier. Besides, customer service is one of the industries most heavily affected by digital transformation and the spread of generative AI. In mid-2024, the UK customer service industry looks largely adapted to the new trends, if a 75.8 out of 100 Customer Satisfaction Index is any indicator. More importantly, digital transformation proved a positive stimulus for the industry, despite initial fears of workforce reduction.
Agriculture
UK agriculture was most heavily affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which disrupted established supply chains, particularly wheat imports. Today, however, agriculture is one of the top industries 2024 UK economy can boast of — especially since the government keeps introducing new fiscal reliefs to alleviate the burden of ever-growing commodity prices. Indirectly, disrupted supply chains stimulated a faster shift to sustainable farming practices — a development that clearly had a positive impact on UK agriculture.
Science & Research
Average growth: 1,576
Median weekly earnings: £711
Science and research have always been one of the kingdom’s fortes, so it’s not surprising this segment makes it to the list of fastest-growing industries UK 2024. Unlike most other market segments in this analysis, the UK’s science niche has shown more or less steady growth despite this decade’s abundant challenges, and the industry continues to show a predictable development pace in 2024.
C-Level & TOP management
Average growth: 1,445
Median weekly earnings: £692
The overall digital transformation of business operations caused a massive demand for qualified C-level & top management experts who could help organizations adjust to new business realities. Today, the surge is gradually declining, but business consulting remains one of the top industries in 2024 UK economic landscape. Besides the still-ongoing digital transformation process, there’s been a conspicuous shift to sustainable business practices — and this operational model also creates demand for new leadership.
IT
Average growth: 1,297
Median weekly earnings: £711
Not surprisingly, IT makes it to the list of high-growth markets in UK and worldwide. The IT sector has always been a highly robust one, so it was one of the first to recover froms the pandemic and adapt to the digital transformation, along with the spread of AI. Today, everything is about data, with data scientists and cloud experts among the top ten in-demand IT jobs in 2024. UK IT sphere is not an exception, showing impressive growth in all IT sub-segments, and above-average growth in data science and cloud technologies.
Fashion, Beauty & Sports
Average growth: 1,062
Median weekly earnings: £576, £384, £442
UK fashion, beauty, and sports industries show comparable growth rates, with last year’s beauty surge returning back to normal. A growing concern for the environment and a shift towards sustainability are among the chief trends shaping the UK’s fashion, beauty, and sportswear segment in 2024. Businesses are actively adopting this change, which already creates increased consumer interest, boosting market growth indicators.
Arts & Entertainment
Average growth: 0,946
Median weekly earnings: £557
One more high-growth market that has shown remarkable resilience is the UK’s arts and entertainment industry. For the last two years, the industry has been showing steady growth as the international demand for UK content increased. In 2024, the arts and entertainment industry is one of the chief contributors to the UK’s budget, generating billions in gross value and enjoying generous funding to stimulate further growth. Right now, the UK is confidently solidifying its position as the leading content provider in gaming, TV, and film.
Marketing & Advertising
Average growth: 0,876
Median weekly earnings: £750
Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the UK marketing and advertising industry shows very moderate growth. However, one cannot deny the slow but steady industry recovery, which is also supported by our internal data. For the last two years, the UK’s ad spend has been steadily increasing, which in part, is explained by the growing demand for UK content. Besides, one should not forget that this industry is also going through a major shift inspired by the spread of generative AI and marketing automation — and so far, it looks like the segment is on the right track.
Insurance
Average growth: 0,788
Median weekly earnings: £442
Fintech has always been one of the UK’s economic strengths, so it’s not surprising that insurance also makes it to the list of high-growth markets UK boats of. Like many other industries on this list, the insurance segment is adjusting to new consumer behaviors emphasizing sustainability and regulatory scrutiny. However, comparable growth indicators in this turbulent decade alone show that the industry, on the whole, is coping well.
Business Management
Average growth: 0,787
Median weekly earnings: £884
Even though business management ranks last on our internal list of top industries in 2024 UK economic landscape, it is one of the steadiest segments with comparable growth indicators and stable earnings. Currently, mid-size businesses, particularly in the IT sphere, show the best growth indicators. However, other segments are also doing reasonably well, especially if we recall the still-ongoing digital transformation process and changing workforce trends inspired by AI’s spread.
Methodology
In this high-growth markets UK analysis, we have collected all job searches made over our database from January 2024 to July 2024 and filtered out requests related to the UK. Later, we categorized all search results by industry, calculating the monthly number of searches made in each industry segment. To understand the industry growth rate, we calculated the average arithmetic growth rate of industries. This gave us a factual picture of how UK job demand within each industry grew this year. Notably, the data used in this analysis is based on our internal database findings, but since the database is primarily used by recruiters, it provides a good overview of the factual job demand and, consequently, industry growth in the United Kingdom. Finally, we categorized our results based on industry growth, ranking them from high to low.
Additional information about UK industry growth trends was taken from publicly available sources, primarily from the House of Commons Library and other official government resources. Graphics about industry growth fluctuations are also based on the information from the House of Commons Library and are included as a visual example of how each market segment is slowly recovering from the Covid recession. While many markers have not (yet) reached their pre-Covid figures, steady industry growth exemplified by our own data, as well as government resources, clearly indicates the UK economy is on the rise again.
Information about median salaries was taken from Glassdoor, a non-profit platform allowing employees to anonymously review their employers and share information about their factual salaries. The figures presented include only the median numbers in each UK industry, without accounting for actual employer, position, or years of experience. Notably, Glassdoor only lists information about annual salaries, so we divided their figures by 52 — the average number of official work weeks a year to get medium weekly earnings.
Conclusion
The UK economy is clearly on the rise again, offering plenty of employment opportunities across multiple industries. Based on our internal data, as well as official government resources, sectors the UK traditionally excelled at — professional services, healthcare, science, and finance — are among the first ones to recover after the COVID-19 recession. However, other industries, including entertainment, fashion, and IT, are also doing remarkably well.
Of course, one should not forget that this analysis presents a general overview of UK industry growth trends and is not tied to any particular location. If you would like a more detailed overview of employment opportunities, check out our recent research of the best UK cities for work — based on our data, these locations have shown the highest increase in job openings in late 2023. In the meantime, we will keep you informed about the latest industry and economic developments, so stay tuned for more of our blog posts!