The UK had an estimated 36.8 million workforce jobs in March 2026. The largest individual industry group was human health and social work, with about 5.09 million jobs, followed by wholesale and retail trade at roughly 4.63 million.
Professional, scientific and technical activities accounted for about 3.49 million jobs, education 3.14 million and administrative and support services just under 3.0 million. The figures count jobs rather than people, so someone with more than one job can appear more than once.
Services dominate the employment map
The ranking reflects Britain's service-heavy economic structure. Health, retail, professional services, education, hospitality and administration collectively employ far more people than manufacturing or construction.
That does not mean they contribute the same amount of output per job. Employment scale and productivity are different measures, which is why a sector can be a huge employer without being the largest contributor to profits or exports.
Manufacturing remains smaller but strategically important
Manufacturing accounted for about 2.48 million workforce jobs in March 2026. The sector was down 3.2% from a year earlier, one of the larger annual declines in the ONS release.
Its employment share is smaller than retail or health, but manufacturing remains important for exports, regional supply chains, research and capital investment. Headcount alone understates those spillovers.
Professional services are a large labour market in their own right
Professional, scientific and technical activities had around 3.49 million jobs and added 43,000 jobs during the quarter. The category includes legal, accounting, consulting, engineering, scientific and other specialist work.
For graduates and high-skill employers, that makes professional services one of the most important parts of the British labour market, even though it is less visible than retail or healthcare in everyday employment statistics.