The Office for National Statistics has removed a number of jobs from its classifications as it says they are no longer relevant to todays economy.

The Guardian notes that among those positions which have 'disappeared' are coal pickers, timber throwers and ice-pickers - all defunct manual jobs, but manual skilled-trade workers (who are predominantly male) remain one of the two biggest groups of the workforce. The other group, administrative and clerical positions are mainly filled by women, although the number of workers in both categories has reduced by around 7 percent since 1991.

The change in job classifications is the first since 1995, and the old jobs have made way for the likes of aerobics instructors, web designers, call centre operators and even kissograms.

The inclusion of that last job title perhaps reflects the fact that the service industry is growing the fastest to cater for high earners who don't have the time to shop, cook or clean for themselves.

Despite the fact that the job for life is supposed to be disappearing, around 30 percent of the workforce are staying in their jobs for more than 10 years, and this figure is quite stable. Speaking in the Guardian, Nick Burkitt of the Insitute for Public Policy Research says that "although there have been significant shifts, the labout market has not been transformed in the past 10 years. The new economy still leaves the vast majority of us doing jobs that have been around for years, and will probably still be around for many years to come".