SECTOR DIFFERENCES Insecure jobs tend to be concentrated in specific sectors – such as hospitality, social care and administrative services – but the level of insecurity in these sectors differs across the country. For example, hospitality workers in Tees Valley are more likely to experience severely insecure work than hospitality workers in the Liverpool City Region. This results from differences in the scale and productivity of these sectors in these respective places, with one providing higher value activities than the other. Broadly understood, highvalue added activities are more likely to provide more secure working conditions, compared with lower-value added activities, which appear to be related to the presence of more insecure jobs. This may be because businesses that generate higher value added – meaning they are more productive – tend to be more profitable and pay better wages. In contrast, businesses with lower productivity may have smaller profit margins and are not able to offer high wages or stable conditions. Job roles that have lower levels of worker autonomy and have more routine tasks are more likely to have insecure working conditions than professional and managerial roles. However, this research has found that similar jobs can have very different outcomes in different places, which relates to the productivity of the organisation and the sector where people work. QUALITY EMPLOYMENT It is not surprising that stronger economies tend to provide more wellpaying, secure jobs than economies that are lagging. In particular, high levels of severely insecure work are associated with lower levels of available jobs overall, lower levels of labour market participation, and concentrations of lower value-added activities. This makes it important to address the quality of employment alongside wider policy aims of growing the economy. With a General Election in 2024, and seven Mayoral Combined Authorities, including Greater London, holding elections in the same year, it could be a pivotal year for renewing and elevating commitments to reduce insecure work and level up city regions and the UK by 2030. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 45 Rebecca Florisson is Principal Analyst at the Work Foundation. The report Delivering Levelling Up? How secure work can reduce regional inequality was produced by the Work Foundation and authored by Rebecca Florisson. r.florisson@lancaster.ac.uk
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