Latest results
The latest work quality statistics were released on 26th March 2025, and contained analysis of eleven work quality indicators; earnings, secure employment, under/over employment, job satisfaction, meaningful work, career progression, employee involvement in decision-making, bullying/harassment, under/over skilled, line manager support, and flexible working.
Additional tables containing age, sex, deprivation quintile (most and least deprived), and skill level breakdowns were also included in the accompanying tables.
Key Points:
There have been significant increases in five of the eight work quality indicators included since 2020; job satisfaction, career progression, neither under nor over employed, flexible working, and earning at least the real living wage.
Job security has remained consistently high across the time series, with nearly all employees in secure employment (96% in 2024).
For the most recent period, 2024, the hardest indicator to achieve was the neither under nor over skilled indicator, with approximately half of NI employees reporting that they had the correct level of skills required for their current duties (52%).
When comparing by sex, the largest difference between male and female employees related to flexible working, with a greater proportion of females in flexible work (65%) than males (47%). Although this is a substantial 18 percentage points (pps) difference, the proportion of males reporting flexible work has grown by 9 percentage points since 2020.
When factoring in age, employees aged 18 to 39 reported better opportunities for career development (61%) than employees aged 40 and over (51%), while a larger proportion of those aged 40 and over were earning at least the Real Living Wage (RLW) (84%) than employees aged 18 to 39 (74%).
Latest publications
Previous publications and tables
- Work Quality in Northern Ireland - July 2022 to June 2023
- Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace in Northern Ireland 2022
- Line Manager Support in Northern Ireland 2022
- Skills Mismatch in Northern Ireland 2022
- Work Quality in Northern Ireland – July 2021 to June 2022
- Work Quality in Northern Ireland – July 2020 to June 2021
- Work Quality in Northern Ireland (additional analysis) – July 2019 to June 2020
- Work Quality in Northern Ireland (headline) – July 2019 to June 2020
- Work Quality 2019 tables
Work plan
Background information
- LFS background and quality information
- Changes to LFS outputs (2019)
- Statistical protocols and compliance
User requested data
Labour market statistics are published regularly throughout the year. We also produce bespoke tables if users request data that are not already available.
A list of published bespoke tables is available from the User requested data page
Information on user events and consultations is available on the Labour Market Statistics User Engagement page.
ELMS publication schedule
Upcoming publication dates from the Economic and Labour Market Statistics Branch, including all Work Quality publications can be found via the publication schedule page
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