Work Quality in Northern Ireland: July 2021 to June 2022

The latest work quality in Northern Ireland statistical publication was released today and provides analysis over time and by age and sex for eight work quality indicators sourced from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE); earnings above Real Living Wage, secure employment, neither under nor over employed, job satisfaction, meaningful work, career progression, employee involvement in decision-making, and flexible work.

Key Points:

• Since 2020, there have been significant increases in five of the eight indicators; earnings above the Real Living Wage, involvement in decision making, opportunities for career progression, neither under nor over employed and flexible work.
• The five most achievable indicators for NI employees are secure employment, being neither under nor over employed, performing meaningful work, earnings above the Real Living Wage and job satisfaction, with four out of five employees meeting these criteria between 2020 and 2022.
• The three consistently lowest indicators; involvement in decision making, opportunities for career progression and flexible work; have each seen significant increases since 2020 (around 6pps), however they all remained below 60% in 2022.
• Secure employment has remained the most positive indicator over time with nearly all NI employees being in secure employment between 2020 (96%) and 2022 (96%).
• The largest significant increase across the indicators was for earnings above the Real Living Wage which increased 11 percentage points between 2020 (74%) and 2022 (85%).
• In 2022, considerably more employees aged 40 and over (90%) reported earnings above the Real Living wage than those aged 18 to 39 (80%).
• The proportion of employees who reported having good opportunities for career progression increased across all cohorts examined (age and sex), however, only female employees and employees aged 40 and over had statistically significant increases since 2021 at 6pps and 7pps respectively.
• The proportion of male employees with an involvement in decision making increased significantly over the year to 2022 by 7pps, where the proportion for male employees (59%) is now higher than that of female employees (57%).
• Across all indicators, flexible work has shown the largest difference between males and females since 2020. However, the gap has decreased from 20pps in 2020 to 18pps in 2022.

The associated statistical bulletin and tables can be accessed on the Work Quality in NI July 2021 to June 2022 page. The tables contain additional breakdowns of sex and age.

Share this page