Jobs for 'squeezed middle' on the decline With low- and high-skilled occupations expanding while middle-skilled occupations decline, the worry is that the UK is drifting towards a two tier labour market, and a recovery that isn't broadly shared. There are success stories here as well as notes of caution; the fast growth in the business activities sector is particularly impressive. The challenge for policymakers is to ensure that more workers can access the top jobs that are expanding, while at the same time acting to raise the pay and quality of the growing number of jobs at the bottom of our labour market. At the top of the labour market, one area to have experienced strong growth is the the high-paying 'business activities' sector, which includes consultancy work. It grew by 16pc, adding 461,000 jobs, between 2008 and 2012, more than the expansion seen across the entire upper end of the market. The overall figure was lower because of job losses in other sectors. At the bottom, the UK's lowest paying sector, hotels and restaurants, grew faster than any other, with employment expanding by 17pc or 218,000 jobs over the period. But not all low-paying sectors added jobs: retail saw a decline in employment of 185,000 from 2008 to 2012, shrinking from 14.8pc to 14.1pc of total employment. The foundation's report also contains new findings that feed into the debate about how the crisis has hit wages and employment. It finds that jobs involving non-routine tasks - such as caring for the elderly - have grown throughout the crisis. Meanwhile, jobs involving more routine tasks, - such as secretarial work - have borne the brunt of the falls in employment. The report finds that real wages show the opposite trend, having fallen more steeply in non-routine than in routine jobs.