BRITISH PROFESSIONS TODAY: THE STATE OF ... - Property Week

The professional economy >>
All things will be produced in superior
quantity and quality, and with greater
ease, when each man works at a single
occupation, in accordance with his
natural gifts, and at the right moment,
without meddling with anything else.
Plato, 427-347 BCE
How, and to what extent, do the professions
contribute to the growth of the British and
European economies?
In the absence of a clear operational definition
of the professional sector, we must rely upon
proxies (or substitutes) to measure the
professions’ contributions to the British economy.
No document or dataset currently exists that
accurately measures the true value of the
professional sector to the UK economy – by
Sir Alan Langlands’ definition of ‘profession’ or
any other. The fact that comprehensive statistics
on the professional economy are not available is
an important finding in and of itself.
Data disclaimer
We use the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 74, “Law,
accounting, architecture, and other business activities not
elsewhere classified,” as the best extant proxy for the
professional services sector. 9 SIC 74 includes most of the
occupations generally considered “professional:” the legal
profession (including barristers, solicitors, and other legal
professionals), accountancy, tax consultancy, financial
management, general management consultancy, architecture,
surveying, urban planning, engineering, technical consulting,
advertising, market research, public relations, and labour
recruitment and provision of personnel.
However, SIC 74 also includes occupations that one would
not generally consider to be professional, many of which do
not have a specific public interest remit (eg investigation and
security activities, industrial cleaning, photographic activities,
and call centre activities). The classification also leaves out
many occupations that might be considered professional:
notably, real estate, financial services such as banks, insurance,
and fund management, and the public sector professions,
eg teaching and medicine.
9 The Standard Industrial Classifi cation is identical to the EUROSTAT
System NACE at the four digit class level and the United Nations system
ISIC at the two digit Divisional level. The SIC was recently reviewed, and a
series of consultations resulted in a major revision (2007). Although
technically new classifi cations have been in effect as of 1 January 2008,
most statistical bodies have not yet made the change from the old SIC
(2003). Accordingly, all data used in this report refer to SIC 2003.
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