Gone are the days when a cloth-capped factory worker represented the archetypal job.
'Iconic' occupations which sum up the spirit of the times more closely resemble Big Brother contestants, according to a new study.
Apart from celebrities, other iconic jobs include hairdressers, managers and consultants, according to the report titled Paradigm Trades:
The Iconic Jobs of the Early 21st Century.
The study was carried out for The Work Foundation, a consultancy which campaigns to improve the quality of working life. It claims that these four 'iconic' occupations most closely resemble the pattern and nature of modern working life.
Celebrities demonstrate how people are becoming their work, hairdressers reveal that personal services are still crucial, despite rising globalisation, managers show that status is important and the role of a consultant shows the power of the outsider.
The report author, Stephen Overall, said: "In the early 20th Century, it was obvious what we meant by the word 'worker' - most of us would point to the factory worker, the unionised, male proletarian who was the key figure of his time. Today, it is no longer so obvious.
"Modern work is contradictory and complex. The idea behind a paradigm trade is that a few workers, doing very different types of work, act as representatives for the entire modern world of work.
"It is these workers more than any other that offer us spokespeople for what is going on at work and within our culture as a whole."
