The emerging employment market for librarians and information workers in the UK

Abstract

As the rate of growth in the established market for information specialists declines, increasing attention is focused on the emerging employment market. A survey based on job advertisements suggests that in the UK this emerging market offers between 3000 and 3500 jobs at any one time which potentially are open to librarians and information workers The characteristics of these jobs are described and discussed and the results are reported of a survey which set out to discover: what were the expectations of employers, what sort of people were getting the jobs, and what impact were librarians and information workers making on the emerging employment market The results suggest that, while the market as a whole may expand, librarians and information workers will face severe competition. The research was funded by the British Library.