Job quality in the UK has taken a hit, with a “slow slide into mediocrity”, and workers suffering more stress and feeling less engaged and less fulfilled at work, finds research by the CIPD.
Despite most people liking their work and finding it satisfying, up to 6-9 million workers experienced poor quality work in major areas, finds the CIPD’s Good Work Index 2023, which surveyed 5,000 UK workers.
The survey, which looks at a number of key measures of job quality, finds that over the last four years, not only has there been no significant improvement in job quality, in some respects, job quality has gone backwards. For example, workers are now more likely to think that work is purely transactional, doing it just for the money – 43% in 2023 compared to 36% in 2019.
Many public sector employees don’t feel their pay reflects job responsibilities – 45% compared to 32% in the private sector. Workers in this sector are much more likely to strongly disagree that pay reflects responsibilities –17% vs 8% in the private sector. The number of workers who feel enthusiastic about their job ‘always’ or ‘often’ has fallen from 54% in 2019 to 49% in 2023.
The study found a third (33%) feel bored, just over a quarter (26%) feel miserable and 21% feel lonely.
The CIPD is urging businesses and the UK government to renew their focus on improving job quality, citing the lack of progress on this since the government’s Good Work Plan of 2018.
Jake Young, research associate at the CIPD, said the data suggested “a slow slide into mediocrity, away from enriching and rewarding jobs” and that ‘good work’ is “fundamental to supporting individual wellbeing, fair society, productive organisations and a strong economy.”