The strongest evidence seems to be for jobs involving cleaning or cleaning agents, the research suggests.
The authors base their findings on the job histories up to the age of 42 of almost 7,500 British adults born in 1958, all of whom were taking part in the National Child Development Study, which is tracking the long term health of more than 11,000 people living in Britain.
Information about symptoms of asthma or wheezy bronchitis was collected at the ages of 7, 11, 16, 33 and 42 from 9,500 participants.