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Category: Project

Description: Amid growing evidence that national occupational change trends mask substantial sub-national heterogeneity, we use Census data to visualise how the occupational structure changed within the 33 London borough between 1991 and 2021. The visualisation documents a tale of two cities. The story in Inner London is one of clear upgrading: the proportion of residents employed in high-paid occupations increased by approximately 20 percentage points, while the proportion of residents employed in low- and mid-paid occupations decreased markedly. In Outer London, the story is rather one of occupational polarisation. Although the proportion of residents employed in high-paid jobs increased by 10 percentage points, the rate of growth was much slower and growth at the top was generally accompanied by an increase in employment in low-paid jobs. These findings have important implications for the socio-economic composition of schools and income inequality dynamics in London boroughs, and potentially also for inequality beliefs and political behaviour.