Publications

This paper examines the impact of the UK Public Sector Pay Review Bodies (PRBs) on the pay of their remit groups comparing the real weekly earnings of workers using ASHE and LFS data from 1993 to 2007 for 10 occupational subgroups. Using consecutive difference-in-differences we can identify whether the PRBs have had an impact by…

Previous research on trends in the quality of work in Britain was carried out in a period marked by long-term growth and increasing prosperity. Although often taken as an exemplar case of a ‘liberal’ regime, the implications of an emphasis on deregulation and work-force flexibility for employees’ quality of work are arguably less serious when…

There is a widespread perception that public sector offers an employment advantage for groups disadvantaged generally in the labour market. For example women are more than twice as likely to work in the public sector as men. The relative concentration of these protected groups within the public sector has increased over the past decade of…

Data from the UK Labour Force Survey (LFS) are used to examine two methodological issues in the analysis of the relationship between age and work-related health. First, the LFS is unusual in that it asks work-related health questions to those who are not currently employed. This facilitates a more representative analysis than that which is…

There is increasing interest in the emergence of a ‘global middle class’ in which high achieving young graduates increasingly look to develop careers that transcend national boundaries. This paper explores this issue through comparing and contrasting the aspirations and orientations of two ‘elite’ cohorts of graduates. Interviews with students at the University of Oxford, England,…

This article tracks workers responses to redundancy and impact on the local labour market and regional unemployment policy after the closure of a large employer, Anglesey Aluminium (AA), on Anglesey in North Wales. It questions human capital theory (HCT) and its influence on sustaining neo-liberal policy orthodoxy focused on supplying skilled and employable workers in…

Matched employee–employer data from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey are used to examine differences in work-related perceptions between disabled and non-disabled employees. Even after accounting for differences in personal, job and workplace characteristics, disabled employees are found to hold more negative views on the treatment of workers by managers and, consistent with this, they…

Despite extensive research on the role of ‘personal’ capital on labour market transitions, little is known about how those with elite credentials use networks and connection to improve their labour market chances. This becomes especially relevant within debates on the meritocratic nature of the post-industrial labour market. This article investigates how networks and connections aid…

The aim of the 2012 ESF Leavers Survey is to assist in assessing the effectiveness of labour market interventions delivered under ESF. Telephone interviews were conducted with over 4,000 people who had left an ESF project delivered under Priorities 2 and 3 of the Convergence Programme and Priorities 1 and 2 of the Competitiveness Programme…

This Report is based on survey data collected from two samples of workers: 7,213 workers aged 20-65 years old and living in Britain in 2006 and 3,200 similarly aged workers in 2012. Both surveys were boosted in Wales yielding a total sample of almost1,000 workers in Wales – 407 respondents in 2006 and 587 in…