The past few years have been full of turbulence in the jobs market, with the Covid-19 pandemic forcing many businesses to close their doors for the last time and lessening job security. The effects of Brexit have also caused further problems across the board economically, with the combination of factors triggering a UK recession.
As the economic downturn really begins to kick into high gear and the cost of living crisis bites hard, Forbes Magazine cites a survey which says that the main priority for a majority of workers is now job security.
As well as Brexit, the “Great Resignation” of 2020-21 was also a factor in creating a turbulent jobs market which saw a huge percentage of people leave the jobs that they were previously quite settled in. This combination of factors has led to a UK skills gap that employers are now struggling to fill.
It is against this backdrop that we are looking at the jobs market and asking which jobs now provide the highest level of job security in the UK. There have always been some jobs that were thought to be very secure, but the security of many of these has been eroded by a combination of Covid and Brexit.
Job Security in a Post-Brexit, Post-Covid UK
Many of the job roles that provide the highest level of security are those where they are highly skilled and simply can’t be done by an average person after a few weeks of training. They tend to require an undergraduate degree level or higher and are often provided by the public sector at better-than-average remuneration levels.
Most of the jobs that have the highest level of job security are also within professions that aren’t likely to disappear soon, even if another pandemic should happen. These jobs tend to be what we would consider to be “essential workers” and are often within the medical profession, where there is no chance of robotic automation or artificial intelligence taking over the crucial roles any time soon.
Registered Nurse
Becoming a registered nurse is a sure way to find a career that will still be in demand for many years to come. There is a lot of demand at the time that this article is being written and nurses are in the process of taking industrial action to secure higher pay for the work that they do.
Nurses are the backbone of the National Health Service and as long as the NHS exists, there will be a place for registered nurses and the skills that they bring to the table. There are many nursing vacancies across the UK at the moment so there has never been a better time to begin your nursing journey, as you will have your choice of jobs anywhere in the UK.
The scale of the nursing vacancies at present has been caused in large part by European citizens leaving the UK following Brexit and also the fact that we have just come through Covid-19, which saw the NHS at the forefront of dealing with a pandemic. It was an exhausting time for many staff, and some chose to leave the profession as a result.
Primary School Teacher
This is another profession that is in the public sector and is hard to find qualified staff for. Primary school teaching is a profession that requires specialised education and teacher training in order to become one. The average salary for a teacher is around £35,000 in the UK, which is a reasonable amount of money, and this is before you consider potential career progression and resultant salary increases.
This is one of those professions that we are always going to need. The case hasn’t yet been made that distance learning works with primary school-age pupils. Children of this age don’t tend to have the level of self-discipline necessary to take part in classes remotely yet, even though they may be competent in using the technology.
An important reason for having young children in school during the day is that it allows parents to work outside the home environment without desperately trying to find suitable childcare. Any change to this would cause major societal upheaval.
Software Developer
This is one of the few jobs on the list that tends to offer flexible working and is outside of the public sector. Given the reliance that we have on the internet, software development is one of the jobs that are likely to continue to thrive in years to come and would be unaffected by another pandemic.
Software developers tend to be very well remunerated in comparison to most jobs in the UK, with the average salary being around £43,000pa. This is also an occupation that can be done remotely on a freelance basis. This means it is possible to make the most of geo-arbitrage and take a high-paying job while living in a country with a cheaper standard of living to maximise your financial savings for a few years.
There are rumblings about remote workers moving to other countries in search of a better lifestyle and the potential for a “great relocation”, with more people opting to live and work abroad in the future. With the freedom that their skills give them, software developers are definitely at the forefront of this movement.
Chief Executive Officer
As you may expect, the most senior management tier of C-Level executives isn’t going anywhere any time soon. This is the ultimate career progression, and it is an excellent track to be on. If you can demonstrate your leadership skills and how they applied to your last role, you will never be short of takers for a well-remunerated, often high-pressure, role.
Many people don’t seek to apply for jobs at this level, even though they have spent their careers upskilling and improving their transferable skills.
Impostor syndrome can often get in the way, and self-doubt can prevent them from applying when they are actually the best people for the role. If you are in senior management and a C-Level role becomes vacant, don’t be afraid to push yourself forward and seek that promotion.
