State of the Cornish nation: jobs

What are the most common jobs for people in Cornwall?

First, let’s dispatch a couple of myths. Those icons of Cornwall, the miner and the fisherman, together with the invisible member of the traditional triptych – the farmer and farm labourer – may have accounted for most male jobs in the 19^th century. But no longer. These sectors now employ just three per cent of Cornish residents and even in farming parishes farming is not the main occupation.

Anyone tempted to assume the slack has been taken up by tourism will be mistaken. In the census tourism is not separately identified. However, the majority of accommodation and food service activities can safely be ascribed to tourism. But this is only 8.6 per cent of the Cornish workforce. In total, possibly as many as 15 per cent of all jobs may be accounted for by tourism. That proportion will be bigger than the 11-12 per cent or so that tourism contributes to the economy because of the low productivity and part-time nature of the sector.

A more appropriate representation of the contemporary Cornish worker would be a supermarket shelf-filler and a nurse. The largest number (15.9%) of Cornish residents in full-time employment are found in wholesale and retail trades, including the motor trade. This is closely followed by health and social work at 15.7%. Two other sectors employ around one in ten workers – construction and education. The geography of the leading sectors is illustrated by the map below.