Institute for Employment Research » IER News & blogs (tag [job quality])

Global Labour Markets Conference

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

At the end of January, Professor Peter Elias, CBE and Prof Chris Warhurst of IER attended the 3rd Global Labour Markets Conference (GLMC) in Riyadh. There were over 5000 delegates at the conference. Now an annual event, the GLMC is a bit like Davos for labour markets, attended by lots of government ministers, company CEOs and senior trade union officials.

Drawing on his recent experience of co-developing the UK Standard Skills Classification, Peter was asked to talk about how skills could be measured. Chris was asked to talk about policy development to help support the business case for good jobs.

IER: still doing a good job in 2025

Fri, 19 Dec 2025 09:00:00 GMT

It’s been a good year for good jobs policy

IER was established 45 years ago with funding from the UK Government and what is now the European Commission. Its task then was to provide labour market forecasts to support policymaking. Although government emphasis on skills has remained constant, government interest in employment policy more broadly has waxed and waned over the years.

Measuring 'Bad Jobs' Through Worker Wellbeing: New Evidence from South Korea

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:00:00 GMT

How do we define a 'bad job'? Moving beyond arbitrary thresholds, a new study published in The Economic and Labour Relations Review applies a novel wellbeing-based methodology to identify bad jobs in South Korea's labour market. Using Korean Working Conditions Survey data (2014-2023), IER's Dr Sangwoo Lee and Emeritus Professor Francis Green (UCL Institute of Education) demonstrate that workers in the bottom decile of job quality experience distinctly larger wellbeing gains when moving above this threshold – providing empirical justification for defining these as 'bad jobs'.

Prof Taylor at the GSA Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, USA

Wed, 19 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Professor Philip Taylor attended the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) event in Boston on 12-15 November 2025. He co-chaired sessions on job quality and social care and spoke about early findings from a UK project — Just Systems — where he talked about decarbonising domiciliary adult social care. Added to this, he chaired a meeting of the Aging Workforce Interest Group of GSA, of which he is the convener.

What university degrees don't buy

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 11:00:00 GMT

A pioneering study published in Studies in Higher Education provides the first comprehensive examination of multidimensional job quality premiums for university graduates across European labour markets, challenging long-held assumptions about the returns to higher education.

The findings carry important implications for how we evaluate higher education outcomes and may help explain why objective graduate advantages don't always translate into higher subjective wellbeing—the so-called "paradox of the dissatisfied graduate."

Memorandum of Understanding between IER and the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development

Tue, 23 Sep 2025 11:00:00 GMT

In early September, the UK and Saudi Government held a joint Great Futures Leadership Summit in London. It was the largest gathering of UK and Saudi Ministers and included the signing of a number of commercial deals between the UK and Saudi Arabia.

One of these deals was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that involves IER providing research, evaluation, training and advice to the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development to support the Saudi Government’s Vision 2030.

IER leads new research on creating healthy jobs

Fri, 04 Apr 2025 12:03:00 GMT

IER has been awarded £1.5 million by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to lead a major study on job quality and health. Led by IER’s Director Professor Chris Warhurst, the project will explore how job design affects workers' mental and physical well-being. Poor job quality has been linked to long-term sickness absence and economic inactivity. For more information see the University of Warwick press release.

New blogs available at LMI for All

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 10:10:00 GMT

Dr Sangwoo Lee explores Understanding Society data to measure the multi-dimensional concept of job quality, and Graham Atwell revisits the implications of AI for the future of jobs.

Are green jobs in Scotland inclusive?

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Chris Warhurst, Jamelia Harris and Jeisson Cardenas Rubio of IER along with Strathclyde University colleague Pauline Anderson have published an article in a special issue of the European Journal of Workplace Innovation. Using data from Scotland, their article ‘A Just Transition? Green jobs, good jobs and labour market inclusivity in Scotland’ presents mixed findings.

Is it the past or the present? Employment quality, unemployment history, psychological distress and mental wellbeing in the UK

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 12:15:00 GMT

Low employment quality and precarious employment have been associated with adverse mental health outcomes, yet the extent to which this association may be explained by the experience of unemployment “scarring” has not yet been explored. Drawing on UK data the article, assessed the links between individuals’ employment quality, unemployment history, and mental well-being and psychological distress. The results help further understanding of employment quality as a social determinant of health and highlight the need for both life course and gender-sensitive research in this area.