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6 - The Weakest Link? Job Quality and Active Labour Market Policy in the UK
- Edited by Jo Ingold, Deakin University, Victoria, Patrick McGurk, Queen Mary University of London
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- Book:
- Employer Engagement
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 18 January 2024
- Print publication:
- 28 February 2023, pp 87-105
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Summary
Introduction
For many years the labour market model in the UK was bound up with a predominant concern with job quantity, but with considerably less attention to job quality (Lauder, 1999). Recently however, there has been a shift in policymaking towards a greater concern with the idea of ‘good work’. In active labour market policy (ALMP) the shift is most readily seen in a growing interest in labour market progression, and a process of policy searching for how employment services might support greater labour market mobility.
Within this context, this chapter explores ALMP approaches and practice in the UK alongside a wider national discourse about increasing good work. The chapter evaluates the extent to which ALMP is a weak link in seeking progress towards good work: firstly, as a result of the historically embedded nature of the employer engagement function within particular types of networks of employers with basic labour demand needs; and secondly how this has been supported by a work-first system in which jobseekers are encouraged, and can be mandated, to accept available opportunities. The argument is made that within this system there is only limited scope for public employment services to engage with a good work agenda, or to exert upward institutional pressure on job quality. However, the current context of labour and skills shortages offers ALMP an opportunity to capitalize on some upward pressures on job quality.
The chapter is structured as follows. The labour market context in the UK is described initially, followed by an appraisal of recent developments around the good work agenda and a discussion of the labour market trends which frame current opportunities. The following sections then provide a discussion of the evolution of ALMP in the UK, and the role of employer engagement within ALMP set against a changing policy context: but one in which work-first remains largely embedded. The final section provides a discussion of what this evidence suggests about the relationship between ALMP and job quality.
Context
Historically, the focus of employment policy in the UK has been on reducing unemployment. Hence, the quantity of jobs available has been a primary concern.
2 - Localising employment policy: opportunities and challenges
- Edited by Andy Jolly, University of Wolverhampton, Ruggero Cefalo, Universität Wien, Austria, Marco Pomati, Cardiff University
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- Book:
- Social Policy Review 34
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 13 October 2022
- Print publication:
- 27 June 2022, pp 24-47
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Summary
Introduction
The United Kingdom is characterised by an uneven economic geography, with large and persistent regional disparities in economic activity (Gardiner et al, 2013; Martin et al, 2016). Labour market outcomes and conditions vary quite widely over space. Even set within the context of rising employment rates generally in recent years, concentrations of labour market disadvantage persist in a range of settings. This includes areas of deprivation in large urban areas and former industrial towns (Beatty and Fothergill, 2020a, 2020b), as well as in some seaside towns (Beatty et al, 2017). Areas with comparatively weak local economies suffered most in the 2008–09 recession (Lee, 2014) and also appear to have been most severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (Houston, 2020).
The characteristics of place shape labour market outcomes both through the types of jobs that are available locally, as well as through factors which influence the ability of local residents to benefit from the available employment opportunities (either in the immediate area or through commuting). This includes, for example, factors such as transport infrastructure, training opportunities and the availability of childcare which can enable or constrain residents’ ability to access employment opportunities (Green, 2020).
In line with national trends, unemployment rates in the area types identified earlier have largely been on a long-term decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, although they tend to remain above the national average (Beatty and Fothergill, 2020a). However, since the 1990s there has also been a concern with rates of economic inactivity, in addition to unemployment. A major driver of this concern has been inactivity due to ill health and the comparatively large historic growth in the numbers of claimants of sickness-related benefits (Beatty et al, 2009; Barnes and Sissons, 2013). More recently, there has also been a shift to increasing concerns with issues of in-work poverty and poor job quality among those entering the labour force (Jung and Collings, 2021). From the perspective of the policy approach to active labour market policy (ALMP), this concern with job quality has primarily been articulated in terms of access to opportunities for labour market progression (Sissons, 2020).
These disparities in labour market outcomes, in terms of unemployment, economic inactivity and job quality and wages, have driven increasing interest in greater local tailoring or ownership of ALMP interventions.