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The Office for National Statistics has published night-time economy statistics for the UK in 2022 with a focus on understanding the people who work during the evening and night across the UK.
The ONS data's main points include:
The total number of night-time workers fell from 9.5 million in 2016 to 8.7 million in 2022.
In 2022, 15% of night-time workers worked from home compared with 25.1% of purely daytime workers.
In 2022, 15.1% of employees in night-time industries were in low-paid roles, compared with 10.5% of employees as a whole; in the night-time cultural and leisure activities grouping, which includes restaurants, pubs and entertainment activities, this figure increases to 38.5%.
The night-time cultural and leisure activities grouping has a relatively high number of workers aged 16 to 19 years (18.6%, compared with 3.0% of the workforce as a whole) and a significant number of people in elementary occupations (45.0%), including bar and restaurant staff and security guards.
The night-time economy relies heavily on people born outside of the UK: between 2012 and 2022, the number of night-time workers born outside of the UK rose by 32.6% to 2.0 million; in the 24-hour health and personal services grouping of industries, this number rose by 69.1% to 0.5 million.
While there are more night-time workers in urban areas than rural areas, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of an area's population, rural areas typically have a higher proportion of night-time workers in their workforce.