In the Good Work Plan (2018) the UK government committed to a wide range of policy and legislative changes to ensure that workers can access fair and decent work, that both employers and workers have the clarity they need to understand their employment relationships, and that the enforcement system is fair and fit for purpose.

But how can the quality of jobs be measured consistently across roles, sectors and geographical areas in a way that will enable the government to demonstrate the impact of its Good Work Plan?

A ReWAGE sub-group was convened to conduct a feasibility study into whether there are ways in which job quality can be measured using some of the information already available in large-scale national data sources such as the Annual Population Survey and the Census of Population.

In producing the report 'Monitoring UK job quality - a feasibility study for developing a new approach' a ReWAGE sub-group used the CIPD’s widely-supported Seven Dimensions of Job Quality as its starting point, and which have been recommended for use to the UK Government by the RSA/Carnegie Measuring Job Quality Working Group. These dimensions are:

· Terms of employment

· Pay and benefits

· Health, safety and psychological wellbeing

· Job design and nature of work

· Social support and cohesion

· Voice and representation

· Work-life balance

The sub-group set out to see if it could identify a set of variables within available data sources that could act as proxy measures for the seven dimensions of job quality, and to consider the possibility of aggregating these into a single broad indicator.

Data from four annual surveys conducted by the CIPD (UK Working Lives Surveys) provided information on occupation, sector, employment status, organisation size and type of employment contract.

Overall, the study revealed that it is feasible to use proxy measures available on large-scale data sources to develop broad indicators of job quality. This approach will be useful for measuring differences in job quality between relatively small geographical areas and demographic groups and helping central and devolved government to improve job quality.

However, the statistical analysis undertaken in this feasibility study needs to be replicated using survey data sources that can provide more detail for small occupation unit groups, based upon survey methods that systematically represent the entire working population. The sub-group has made some recommendations for next steps.

The sub-group's evidence paper and a short summary of the feasibility study have now been published.