The Skills Imperative 2035: occupational outlook: long-run employment prospects for the UK: working paper 2: headline report

The nature of the change in demand for jobs and skills in the future UK labour market is not currently well understood. In response, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is leading a strategic research partnership, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, to identify the essential employment skills people will need for work by 2035. The first stage of the research investigated the scale of the challenge that the UK faces in the next 15 years. Based on this review of the literature, the research developed baseline projections, including an overview of macroeconomic and sectoral employment prospects as well as the implications for skills as measured by qualifications and occupations. Alternative scenarios were also developed to consider other possible outcomes.

This report summarises the main findings from the baseline projections and alternative scenarios and brings together the scenarios to consider overall implications for occupations and skills. The changes identified by the research programme imply significant changes in the skills required to succeed in the future labour market of 2035. The next stage of the research program will examine this in detail, building on this work to identify which employment skills will be most needed in future.

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