The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social StructureLeigh Shaw-Taylor
The service sector, also known as the tertiary sector, comprises all workers not making a physical product. This includes shopkeepers, wholesalers, publicans, hotel workers, people working in financial services, health and social care workers, professional services, and transport workers.
The UK economy today, like that of all rich countries, is dominated by the service or tertiary sector. According to the 2021 census, fully 76 percent of the labour force is now in the tertiary sector. But when did the service sector become dominant, and when did it begin to grow? Many people think the growth of the service sector is a recent phenomenon, starting perhaps in the 1950s and picking up speed as Britain de-industrialised from the 1970s. However, new long-run data on male occupations collected by the Occupational Structure of Britain c.1379-1911 project tell a different story.