BRIEFING - Decent exposure - An overview of how Britain’s exposure to trade has changed

The use of the ONS statistical data in this work does not imply the endorsement of the ONS in relation to the interpretation or analysis of the statistical data. [...] And so, overall the exposure of UK jobs to international trade has become less concentrated in pockets of the (‘physical stuff-producing’) economy – and with it the exposure of workers to trade shocks has broadened. [...] The regional variation of workers’ trade exposure has fallen The overall trade exposure of workers has changed little in the past 20 years, yet the exposure of various sectors has changed. [...] This is because the move of workers away from more-tradable manufacturing sectors has been more than offset by globalisation over this period, driving up the trade intensity of the sectors where workers are now employed, in particular the rise of the export intensity of professional services. [...] So, overall, globalisation and the rise in the openness of the UK to imports, has pushed up the exposure of households to trade through their imported consumption.