Publications

Here we make an original, empirical contribution to debates on welfare pluralism, the mixed economies of welfare and territorial rescaling by comparing civil society approaches to tackling youth unemployment in England, Scotland and Wales. Our core finding is that academic and policy literature’s frequent characterisation of the UK as a single Liberal welfare regime is…

This Research Note presents new estimates of trade union membership derived for detailed geographical areas across Great Britain. Analysis reveals the wide variations in union density that exist both across the country and within particular regions.  Over the period 2000-2021, union density is shown to vary between 10% in Kensington and Chelsea to 54% in…

This Statistical Compendia is based on research supported by the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). Those who wish to use this data should cite its source as: Davies R., Bryson A. and Jones S. (2022) Geographical Variations in Trade Union Membership – 2000-2021, Cardiff: Wales Institute of Social &…

Motivated by the introduction of the UK Gender Pay Gap Reporting legislation to large firms, defined as over 250 employees, we use linked employee-employer panel data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings to explore pre-legislation variation in the gender pay gap by firm size. In doing so, we integrate two prominent but distinct…

For PAF based surveys such as the Skills and Employment Survey a decision is needed on the number of working adults to select per household. In the past the SES has always selected just one, with the selection being at random from all working adults in the household. But other options are to select all…

Read our annual report, WISERD Insight, featuring our key areas of activity, income profile, funding and engagement activities in 2021.

Introduction The arrival of Covid-19 to the UK in early 2020 led to rapid and far-reaching changes in the way we live our lives. ‘Lockdown’ led to school closures and working from home became the norm for many workers. And while most shops and businesses closed, ‘key’ workers and services experienced unprecedented pressures. For the…

The coronavirus pandemic forced work back into the home on a massive scale. The long-held belief that work and home are separate spheres of economic life was turned on its head overnight. Many employees were new to this way of working and many employers had to manage a disparate workforce for the first time. This…

The economic impact of COVID-19 has exacerbated inequalities in society, but disability has been neglected. This paper contributes to this knowledge gap by providing a comprehensive analysis of the differential labour market impact of COVID-19 by disability in the UK. Using data from the Labour Force Survey before and during the pandemic it estimates disability gaps in pre-pandemic…

This Research Note presents new estimates of trade union membership derived for detailed geographical areas across Great Britain. Analysis reveals the wide variations in union density that exist both across the country and within particular regions.  Over the period 2000-2019, union density is shown to vary between 9% in Kensington and Chelsea to 54% in…