New figures from the census show how most people are employed in Southampton.

Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show Southampton residents were most commonly working as sales and retail assistants when the census was carried out in 2021, with 5,440 employees in the sector.

This is equivalent to one in 31 working-age people in the area – defined by the ONS as aged between 16 and 64.

Sales and retail assistants were followed by 4,500 people working as care workers and home carers, and 3,425 as cleaners and domestic workers.

James Reed, chairman of jobs website Reed.co.uk, said we have reasons to be optimistic about the future job market.

He said: "Sales professionals who can build genuine relationships, healthcare providers tending to the needs of our ageing population, and educators shaping young minds – these will continue to be popular and coveted vocations.

"While technology propels us forwards, this is not to say that our innate human qualities will become redundant in the pursuit of meaningful and important work."

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The figures further show around 10,215 Southampton residents were working in the broader category of managers, directors and senior officials in Southampton – the most highly skilled job category according to the ONS.

Meanwhile, 15,675 were working in so-called 'elementary' occupations, defined as requiring the least amount of education or training.

This means 9.4 per cent of the working-age population were in very low-skilled roles.

Across England and Wales, sales and retail jobs were the most common, with around 1.1 million workers, followed by more than 800,000 people employed in the care sector.

Research by the ONS suggests some jobs may be dying out across England and Wales – for instance, the age profile of typists and bookbinders is far older than those carrying out data entry and analysis.

There have been warnings in recent years certain jobs may be automated out of existence, as new technology simplifies repetitive tasks in both manual and office settings.

Julius Probst, labour economist at the recruitment service TotalJobs, says jobs in care will be crucial in the years to come, especially as they are difficult to automate.

He said: "Countries like the UK will experience a rapidly ageing population over the next two decades as the share of people aged 60 or above is going to increase substantially."

"These are tasks that robots will not be able to take over anytime soon," he said.