Economic Estimates: Employment in the Digital Sector, January 2025 to December 2025
Official Statistics in Development estimating the number of filled jobs in the Digital Sector, derived from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS). This includes both employed and self-employed individuals, and part-time and full-time employment.
Documents
Details
Headline findings
- Digital Sector employment was approximately 1.81 million in 2025, an increase on the 1.77 million Digital Sector filled jobs reported in 2024.
- Digital Sector filled jobs increased by approximately 38,000 or 2.1% from 2024 to 2025. By comparison, employment in the UK overall increased by approximately 388,000 filled jobs or 1.1% from 34.07 million in 2024 to 34.46 million in 2025.
- The Digital Sector accounted for 5.2% of the UK’s filled jobs in 2025, no change on the 5.2% proportion reported in 2024.
- The increase in Digital Sector filled jobs between 2024 and 2025 followed a decrease in Digital Sector filled jobs of 120,000 or 6.3% from 2023 to 2024.
- Between 2024 and 2025, the largest increases in employment were in the ‘Film, TV, video, radio and music’, ‘Computer programming, consultancy and related activities’ and ‘Publishing (excluding translation and interpretation activities)’ subsectors, up 23,000, 17,000 and 11,000 filled jobs respectively.
- The proportion of filled jobs held by female workers in the Digital Sector was 29.9% in 2025, an increase from 28.5% in 2024. The proportion of filled jobs held by disabled workers was 12.9% in 2025, a decrease from 15.1% in 2024. The Digital Sector continued to under-represent these groups compared to the UK overall within which 48.3% were female workers and 17.8% were disabled workers.
- The largest proportional increase in Digital Sector employment across regions of the UK was in the North East of England, which increased by 24.3% or approximately 9,000 filled jobs from 2024 to 2025. London saw the largest absolute increase in Digital Sector filled jobs at approximately 23,000 or 5.1%. London continued to hold the largest proportion of Digital Sector filled jobs at 26.1% in 2025, up 0.7 percentage points from 2024.
- The largest absolute increase in Digital Sector employment from 2024 to 2025 across age bands was for people aged 35-44, up approximately 38,000 filled jobs or 8.5%. Digital Sector filled jobs for people aged 16-24 also increased by 8.9% or approximately 9,000 filled jobs. The 25-34 and 35-44 age groups continued to hold the largest proportion of Digital Sector filled jobs at 28.7% and 27.0% respectively.
Released
1 October 2026
About this release
The statistics in this release are classed as Official Statistics in Development. Previous releases in this series have been classed as Accredited Official Statistics – meaning they comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) removed accreditation from this series at our request, following the ONS reporting concerns with the quality of estimates for smaller segments of the APS population, which the Digital Sector Economic Estimates: Employment series depends upon. Although ONS has since reviewed this decision and will publish future APS based outputs as Official Statistics, this publication will remain Official Statistics in Development. This is because this publication is based on APS data which were classified as Official Statistics in Development at publication.
Comparison of APS based employment estimates with employment estimates derived from other data sources highlights further potential data quality issues causing APS based employment estimates to diverge from alternative data sources from 2019 onwards. Users are advised to consult a wide range of data sources to evaluate trends in Digital Sector employment. The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) for example, provides employment estimates for industrial sectors.
These statistics are used to provide an estimate of the number of filled jobs in the Digital Sector, for the period January 2025 to December 2025.
This is a continuation of the Digital Sector Economic Estimates: Employment Calendar Year release series, previously produced by the former-Department for Culture, Media and Sport and, subsequently, the former-Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). Digital Sector Economic Estimates are transferring from former DSIT to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), with the aim of bringing all DCMS Economic Estimates together in due course. This release has been produced by former DSIT under the direction of the former DSIT Chief Statistician.
Data sources and technical information
These findings are calculated based on the published Office for National Statistics (ONS) Annual Population Survey (APS). ONS has reported concerns with the quality of estimates for smaller segments of the APS population, meaning there is more uncertainty with estimates produced from this data. The Digital Sector is derived from smaller segments of the APS. Therefore, the increased volatility of APS estimates due to low sample sizes affects the validity of any observed changes in Digital Sector employment estimates.
In response to these concerns this series has been reclassified to Official Statistics in Development, in line with ONS’s decision to consider their APS based labour market statistics as Official Statistics in Development. Although ONS has since reviewed this decision and will publish future APS based outputs as Official Statistics, this publication will remain Official Statistics in Development as it is based on APS data which were classified as Official Statistics in Development at publication. In addition to reclassifying this series as Official Statistics in Development, we have produced coefficient of variation data to indicate the level of statistical robustness for each employment estimate in this release. More detail on this can be found in the technical report.
We have also compared APS based employment estimates with employment estimates derived from other data sources in order to review the statistical robustness of employment estimates in previous releases. This comparison showed APS based employment estimates diverged from alternative data sources from 2019 onwards, suggesting further potential data quality issues with underlying APS data. Further information on this potential data quality issue is available is the technical report. Users are advised to consult a wide range of data sources to evaluate trends in Digital Sector employment.
The APS provides data on an individual level for both a respondent’s first job, and if applicable, a respondent’s second job as separate variables. Respondents are filtered on whether they are “in work” across these two variables, by whether for their “first job” they are an employee or self-employed, and whether for their “second job” they are an employee, self-employed or have otherwise not stated.
As “employment” is estimated as the number of filled jobs, the data is restructured to be on a per job basis, rather than a respondent basis. Estimates are calculated by selecting entries that are relevant for a particular measure and demographic breakdown. Reported values are then aggregated over their associated population weights to generate an estimate of the total number of filled jobs.
Users should note that values presented in this dataset are self-reported, which may impact the accuracy of the reported data. There can also be low sample sizes in some of the sub-sectors and demographic breakdowns leading to the data not being presented due to data suppression from disclosure risk. The APS gives more access to detailed demographic information than other comparable datasets allowing for more comprehensive analysis of demographic breakdowns.
The technical guidance contains further information about data sources, methodology, and the validation and accuracy of these estimates. The latest version of this guidance was published alongside this release in October 2026.
Content
These statistics cover employment (filled jobs) in the Digital Sector and its subsectors alongside UK totals.
Feedback
We aim to continuously improve the quality of estimates and better meet user needs. We welcome feedback on this release. Feedback should be sent via email to economicestimates@dsit.gov.uk.
Office for Statistics Regulation
Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistical Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.
You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing economicestimates@dsit.gov.uk. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.
Pre-release access
The accompanying pre-release access document lists ministers and officials who have received privileged early access to this release. In line with best practice, the list has been kept to a minimum and those given access for briefing purposes had a maximum of 24 hours.
Contact
Responsible statistician: Rory Attwell
For any queries or feedback, please contact economicestimates@dsit.gov.uk.