Employment

The quality of work has major implications for long-term career progression and for a wide range of wellbeing outcomes for people and their families. With the rise of non-standard work and self-employment, the nature and quality of employment has become a key policy debate.

What data do Understanding Society collect?

Understanding Society is a study of people within their household context. We interview all adults over 16 about their circumstances and lives. Understanding Society is longitudinal, so follows the same people over time. A sub-set of the Understanding Society sample can be traced back to 1991 using the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). This design means we collect information which captures the complexity of personal and household interactions with employment; progression, career breaks, educational background, ethnicity and the local economy.

We ask questions annually about people’s current employment, second jobs and non-employment – job-seeking, retirement and details of their last job. We also ask about job satisfaction. Every two years we ask about commuting and people’s working conditions, which includes pay rises and bonuses, job security, flexible working, trade union membership and future job plans. Women on maternity leave are asked about their return to work and both men and women are asked about planning for retirement.

Tips for analysts

Index terms

To find out about the variables in the Study use the index terms where you can search for employment variables including employment history, hours worked, self-employment and wages and deductions.

Variable search

The Variable search helps you find the variables you need for your research and shows which data file and questionnaire module it is in.

Questionnaire modules

The questionnaire modules show the areas covered in each wave of the Study and allow you to see the actual questions asked in the survey.

Need help?

Visit our new user pathway to explore the data and online resources or contact the User Support forum if you have a question for the Study team.

Policy evaluation: Automatic pension enrolment had little effect on savings

People automatically enrolled in National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) pension schemes have benefitted by saving for retirement, but still have few other savings to fall back on.

Podcast: Job mobility and the gender pay gap

In this episode, we discuss the effects of parenthood on job mobility and what this means for the gender pay gap with Dr. Silvia Avram and Alesha De Freitas.