Theme 2: Project 4 – Skill and Job Quality: The Workers’ Perspective

The purpose of this project was to analyse the Skills and Employment Survey series, in order to elucidate the individuals’ perspectives on the evolution of job quality and how it relates to outcomes for workers since the 1980s. We invited several expert authors in areas of work sociology and economics to make use of the Skills and Employment Survey 2012, and contribute to a book. Assistance with the data was provided by the project team. A workshop was then held in Oxford to discuss draft contributions, and later the book* was published in 2015.

The book examines the links between aspects of job quality and various socio-economic factors, and how these relationships have changed since the 1980s. The focus is on the inequality of job quality in multiple dimensions. The book provides the first systematic assessment of trends in inequality in job quality in Britain in recent decades. Although there has been some improvement in the relative job quality experienced by women, part-time employees and temporary workers, the book reveals the remarkable persistence of major inequalities in the working conditions of other categories of employee across periods of both economic boom and crisis.

Huw Morris from the Welsh government writes in his review: “The analysis presented throughout this book is impressive for its timespan, depth and rigour, although the breadth might usefully be increased in future surveys to enable an assessment of the fortunes of other protected or minority groups; for example, the young and old, ethnic minorities and disabled workers. The quality of the statistical analysis which lies behind the conclusions listed above demonstrates the very high levels of expertise of the leading social scientists who have contributed to this book.”

Selected publications

Felstead, A., Gallie, D. and Green, F. (eds.) (2015) Unequal Britain At Work. The Evolution and Distribution of Job Quality, Oxford University Press.