Construction workers and drivers among jobs most in demand in Wales

Mark Mansfield

Construction workers, drivers and teaching and childcare support staff are among the occupations experiencing the strongest growth in demand in Wales, new analysis has found.

Thirteen groups of occupations have been placed in a “top demand” category by the Welsh Government after researchers examined changes in pay, working hours, employment and recruitment activity.

They account for 215,100 workers – 14.7% of the Welsh workforce – and also include sports and fitness jobs, legal and finance roles, hospitality workers and hairdressers.

A further 502,500 people work in 23 occupations classed as being in “higher demand”, meaning almost half of people in employment in Wales are working in occupations where demand has been increasing.

But the occupations experiencing the strongest increases in demand are not generally among the best paid.

Most of the 13 top-demand groups had median hourly earnings below £20 in 2025.

Hairdressers and related workers earned a median £12.63 an hour, food preparation and hospitality workers £13.75 and road transport drivers £14.58.

At the other end of the top-demand group, other drivers and transport operatives had median hourly earnings of £28.11, followed by sales and marketing associate professionals at £19.82 and finance associate professionals at £19.38.

Construction and building trades form the largest of the top-demand groups, employing 36,800 people – 2.5% of the Welsh workforce.

They are followed by road transport drivers at 33,800, teaching and childcare support workers at 33,000 and sales and marketing associate professionals at 32,900. Food preparation and hospitality trades account for another 20,400 workers.

The analysis also found particularly strong recruitment activity among drivers, with an average of 863 new online job adverts a month for road transport drivers during 2025.

Sales and marketing associate professionals generated 808 adverts a month, while teaching and childcare support occupations accounted for 771.

The occupations experiencing the strongest increases in demand were concentrated in jobs requiring intermediate skills rather than degrees.

All of the top-demand occupations were classified at either skill level two or three. These cover jobs generally requiring a good standard of education followed by workplace training or experience, or post-compulsory education normally below degree level.

None of the occupations in the top-demand category was classed at the highest skill level, which covers jobs normally requiring a degree or an equivalent level of experience.

By contrast, the wider “higher demand” group includes doctors, teachers, scientists and research professionals, with almost a third of workers in this category employed in occupations requiring degree-level skills or equivalent experience.

Some of Wales’ biggest occupations fall into this second category, including 80,600 people working in caring personal services, 57,300 teaching professionals and 51,900 sales assistants and retail cashiers.

There were also 47,700 functional managers and directors in the higher-demand category.

Public administration

Public administration, education and health accounted for the largest share of workers in both categories, employing 49,200 people in top-demand occupations and 239,000 in higher-demand occupations.

Among those workers, education was the biggest sector, accounting for 104,900 people, followed by public administration and defence at 50,200, human health activities at 49,200 and residential care at 46,100.

Researchers also examined the skills most frequently required across occupations where demand is increasing.

Managing organisational and operational records was among the most important skills in 22 of the 36 top and higher-demand occupations.

Leading organisational operations and improvements and communicating complex, technical or sensitive information each featured in 17.

The rankings were produced using nine measures covering changes over one and three years in median hourly earnings, paid working hours, employment and online job adverts, as well as changes in the proportion of workers who were new hires.

The analysis drew on the Annual Population Survey, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and online job advert data, with the results relating to Wales and using the latest information available up to December 2025.

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