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Employment

Current employment, employment histories, transitions in and out of employment and career progression – Understanding Society can be used to explore a wide range of employment issues.

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.

Professor Andrew Charlwood

Champion for Employment

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.

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. 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.

Briefing note: Working at home

How patterns of work have changed during the Covid pandemic. Will home working become a permanent feature for work places in the UK?

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Podcast: Who carried the work burden during COVID-19?

In this episode we look at employment and the experiences of working class women during the pandemic.

Placing wellbeing and flexibility at the centre of future work

Dr Daniel Wheatley on future trends in the UK workplace.

Working Paper: Labour mobility and earnings in the UK, 1992-2016

Fabian Postel-Vinay and Alireza Sepahsalari combine data from BHPS and UKHLS to construct time series of aggregate worker stock, worker flows and earnings.

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Our Impact

The Office for National Statistics used the Labour Force Survey and Understanding Society to show that disabled people are among the least likely to return to work after being unemployed.

The Scottish Government has used Understanding Society for a report which showed that mothers are significantly more likely than fathers to be out of employment due to caring responsibilities.

Find out more about the impact Understanding Society has on policy, and about how you can work with us to provide evidence for decision-makers.

Find out more Work with us

Contact User Support Forum if you need help using the data or have a question for the Study team


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