Indicator
Trends in low job quality
Published
20 June 2024
Last updated
1 April 2025
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- The proportion of employees reporting low job satisfaction declined overall from 2010–11 to 2020–21. Since then, there has been a small increase.
- The proportion of employees reporting low job wellbeing and low job autonomy is now higher than in 2014–15.
- The proportion of employees reporting low pay has decreased since 2010–11, with the steepest fall between 2021–22 and 2022–23 due to a higher National Living Wage.
Low-quality work is associated with a negative impact on health. This can be due to workplace hazards and conditions, but also the stress and anxiety that can be caused by a lack of control or autonomy, job insecurity, or insufficient income due to low pay.
This chart shows the proportion of employees with different aspects of low job quality between 2010–11 and 2022–23. Each individual’s experiences at work are assessed according to five aspects of job quality: job satisfaction, job wellbeing, job autonomy, job security and pay.
- Low pay is the most common form of low job quality experienced by UK employees, with 17% of employees experiencing this in 2022–23. This is a decline from a high of 22.6% in 2011–12.
- There has been a rise in the proportion of employees reporting low job wellbeing (9% to 14.9%) and low job autonomy (14% to 16.2%) since 2014–15.
- The proportion of employees reporting low job security (6.3%) has fallen to pre-pandemic levels (6.1%) after a spike during the pandemic (9.1%).
- Despite the increase in other negative job aspects, the proportion of people reporting low job satisfaction has remained relatively steady around 12–13%.
- This indicator adapts measures used by Chandola and Zhang and is based on available data from Understanding Society.
- Aspects of low-quality work are measured as follows:
- low job satisfaction – employees who report feeling somewhat, mostly or completely dissatisfied with their job
- low job autonomy – across five dimensions of job autonomy (autonomy over job tasks, work pace, work manner, task order and work hours), an average score indicating a little or no autonomy
- low job wellbeing – across six measures of emotional perceptions of jobs (whether it inspires feelings of tension, unease, worry, depression, gloom or misery), an average score indicating that someone experiences these feelings some, most or all of the time
- low job security – perception that job loss is either likely or very likely in the next 12 months
- low pay – earnings are below two-thirds of median UK hourly pay.
- The data presented is only for employees aged 18–55 years old (self-employed people are excluded).
Source: University of Essex – Institute for Social and Economic Research, Understanding Society: Waves 10–14, UK, 2010–11 to 2022–23
