(Press-News.org) Accessing stable employment with fair pay and predictable hours is harder for workers in the North and Midlands, which can severely affect their living standards, health, and future job prospects.
A new report published by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University reveals the regions with the highest and lowest levels of ‘severely insecure’ work (employment that is involuntarily temporary or part-time, or when multiple forms of insecurity come together, such as casual or zero-hours contracts, or low or unpredictable pay).
The study focuses on the nine Mayoral Combined Authorities and Greater London where over a third of England’s workforce – 11 million workers – live. Of these workers, 2.2 million (19.4%) are in severely insecure work.
Analysis shows those in Tees Valley are most at risk of severely insecure employment, with levels of insecure work being 4.2 percentage points higher than the national average. This equates to one in four Tees Valley workers experiencing severely insecure work, compared with one in five workers nationally. The picture is even more stark in Middlesbrough, where nearly a third of workers (29.8%) are in severely insecure work – 10 percentage points higher than the national average.
This is followed by workers in South Yorkshire, where insecure work is 1.9 percentage points higher than the national average, and the West Midlands, where the rate of insecure employment is 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average.
Researchers state that major Government intervention is required to reduce levels of insecure work nationally. Even if the rate of severely insecure work in England’s four worst hotspots - Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, the West Midlands and North of Tyne – was reduced to the current national average (19.8%), this would only lift 40,000 people out of severely insecure work.
“Too often, past debates about Levelling Up or reducing regional inequalities have failed to recognise the damaging role that insecure work plays in the lives of millions of people in England,” says Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation. “The reality is, people in severely insecure work are paying the price of Government’s failure to strengthen employment rights and protections during this Parliament, and this failure is also holding back wider Levelling Up ambitions.”
While insecure jobs tend to be concentrated in sectors such as hospitality, social care and administrative services, the report finds that job security within these sectors differs wildly across the country – depending on the nature of activities undertaken within places and the wider productivity of the region. For example, hospitality workers in the Liverpool City Region are less likely to face severe insecurity at work than those in the Tees Valley, in large part thanks to the scale and success of the sector on Merseyside in attracting a steady stream of major global events and wider investment.
Findings suggest workers who live in Liverpool are the least likely of the regions analysed to be trapped in unstable employment, with the rate of insecure work being one percentage point less than the national average. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region also performs comparatively well, with an insecure work rate that is 0.9 percentage points lower than the national average.
However, even within these regions, there are significant pockets of severely insecure work. For example, more than one in four workers in Peterborough local authority are in severely insecure work (25.9%) despite Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority averaging at 18.9%.
”Even in the regions that perform comparatively well, we need to see action to reduce severely insecure work,” Ben Harrison continues. “We know that those who face wider structural disadvantage in the labour market are more likely to find themselves in these kinds of jobs. Women, those with disabilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds are often particularly at risk, leaving these worker groups even more vulnerable to the cost-of-living crisis.
“Fundamentally, we can’t reduce inequality in England without tackling insecure work and improving access to well paid, secure jobs.”
Amongst the report recommendations, the Work Foundation calls for Government to introduce an Employment Bill in the next Parliament that puts job quality and security at the heart of labour market regulation. It also offers recommendations for improved access to predictable working patterns and improvements to Statutory Sick Pay, while calling on Government to support and work with Mayoral Combined Authorities and Greater London to explore how regions themselves can work towards reducing levels of insecure work in their area.
To read the full report and recommendations, visit: www.theworkfoundation.com
ENDS
END
New report adds heat to Levelling Up debate by revealing England's most 'insecure' regions
Accessing stable employment with fair pay and predictable hours is harder for workers in the North and Midlands, which can severely affect their living standards, health, and future job prospects.
2023-09-28
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Swapping starch and refined carbs for whole grains and fruit linked to less midlife weight gain
2023-09-28
Increased consumption of carbohydrate from refined grains, starchy vegetables, and sugary drinks is associated with greater weight gain throughout midlife, while increased fibre and carbohydrate from whole grains, fruit, and non-starchy vegetables is linked to less weight gain, finds a large US study published by The BMJ today.
Most of these associations were stronger for people with excessive body weight, highlighting the potential importance of carbohydrate quality and source for long term weight management, say the researchers.
The role of carbohydrates in weight gain and obesity remains controversial, and few studies have evaluated ...
The BMJ reveals ‘silent scandal’ of missing lung tests across England
2023-09-28
Patients in some of the most deprived areas of England, where respiratory conditions including chronic lung disease (COPD) and asthma are most prevalent, have limited or no access to vital diagnostic tests to confirm their diagnosis, reveals a survey by The BMJ today.
Despite NHS England’s promise of access via Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs), journalist Sally Howard speaks to GPs in some of the worst affected areas who say having no means of referring patients for lung function tests is “troubling” and “a silent scandal.”
And last month, a report by the charity Asthma + Lung UK ...
Students made Oxford the murder capital of late medieval England, research suggests
2023-09-28
A project mapping medieval England’s known murder cases has now added Oxford and York to its street plan of London’s 14th century slayings, and found that Oxford’s student population was by far the most lethally violent of all social or professional groups in any of the three cities.
The team behind the Medieval Murder Maps – a digital resource that plots crime scenes based on translated investigations from 700-year-old coroners’ inquests – estimate the per capita homicide ...
Risk of premature birth from smoking while pregnant more than double previous estimates
2023-09-28
Cambridge researchers have found that women who smoke during pregnancy are 2.6 times more likely to give birth prematurely compared to non-smokers – more than double the previous estimate.
The study, published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology, also found that smoking meant that the baby was four times more likely to be small for its gestational age, putting it at risk of potentially serious complications including breathing difficulties and infections.
But the team found no evidence that caffeine intake was linked to adverse outcomes.
Women are currently recommended to stop smoking and limit their caffeine intake during pregnancy because of the risk of complications ...
Women seeking credibility in health care feel ‘on trial,’ struggle with constraints of double binds
2023-09-28
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Having a chronic illness is a great deal of work, communication researchers have long known. But having an illness that is stigmatized, not well understood or not perceived as a priority by clinicians is uniquely burdensome for many women, who find themselves struggling to establish both the legitimacy of their medical problems and their credibility with clinicians, family members and friends, a recent study suggests.
Sasha, a 25-year-old woman interviewed for the project, told the researchers she has a binder 3 inches thick containing all her medical records that she lugs to every doctor’s appointment to provide documentation ...
Chi-Nu experiment ends with data to support nuclear security, energy reactors
2023-09-28
The results of the Chi-Nu physics experiment at Los Alamos National Laboratory have contributed essential, never-before-observed data for enhancing nuclear security applications, understanding criticality safety and designing fast-neutron energy reactors. The Chi-Nu project, a years-long experiment measuring the energy spectrum of neutrons emitted from neutron-induced fission, recently concluded the most detailed and extensive uncertainty analysis of the three major actinide elements — uranium-238, uranium-235 and plutonium-239.
“Nuclear fission and related nuclear chain ...
Researchers dynamically tune friction in graphene
2023-09-28
The friction on a graphene surface can be dynamically tuned using external electric fields, according to researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign led by Professor Rosa Espinosa-Marzal of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. The work is detailed in the paper, “Dynamically tuning friction at the graphene interface using the field effect,” published September 19, 2023, in the journal Nature Communications.
Friction plays a key role in both natural and engineered systems, dictating the behavior of sliding contacts, affecting ...
Polyps as pixels: innovative technique maps biochemistry of coral reefs
2023-09-27
Using an innovative new approach to sampling corals, researchers at the University of Hawai‘i (UH) at Mānoa are now able to create maps of coral biochemistry that reveal with unprecedented detail the distribution of compounds that are integral to the healthy functioning of reefs. Their study was published today in Communications Biology.
“This work is a major step in understanding the coral holobiont [the coral animal and all of its associated microorganisms], which is critical for reef restoration and management,” said lead author Ty Roach, who conducted this study as a postdoctoral researcher at the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) in the UH ...
Study shows how brain tumors make certain immune cells turn traitor
2023-09-27
September 27, 2023, NEW YORK – A Ludwig Cancer Research study has for the first time exhaustively analyzed immune cells known as neutrophils that reside in brain tumors, including gliomas, which develop in the brain itself, and cancers that spread there from the lung, breast and skin.
Led by Ludwig Lausanne’s Johanna Joyce and Roeltje Maas, an MD-PhD student in her laboratory, the study also details the key role neutrophils play in ensuring the survival of brain cancers and exposes the mechanisms by which the tumor microenvironment (TME) tweaks their biology to turn them into enablers of malignant growth. Its findings suggest new approaches ...
State politics, industry drive planetary health education for K-12 students in US
2023-09-27
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — As much of the U.S. broils under record-setting temperatures, battles wildfires and is rocked by fierce storms, a new study suggests that the science learning standards for many public schools are not preparing young people to understand and respond to problems such as climate change that will dramatically impact their lives and those of millions of people around the globe.
Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science, the findings raise troubling questions about political bias shaping if and what the nation’s ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
The refrigerator as a harbinger of a better life
Windfall profits from oil and gas could cover climate payments
Heartier Heinz? How scientists are learning to help tomatoes beat the heat
Breaking carbon–hydrogen bonds to make complex molecules
Sometimes you're the windshield: Utah State University researcher says vehicles cause significant bee deaths
AMS Science Preview: Turbulence & thunderstorms, heat stress, future derechos
Study of mountaineering mice sheds light on evolutionary adaptation
Geologists rewrite textbooks with new insights from the bottom of the Grand Canyon
MSU researcher develops promising new genetic breast cancer model
McCombs announces 2024 Hall of Fame inductees and rising stars
Stalling a disease that could annihilate banana production is a high-return investment in Colombia
Measurements from ‘lost’ Seaglider offer new insights into Antarctic ice melting
Grant to support new research to address alcohol-related partner violence among sexual minorities
Biodiversity change amidst disappearing human traditions
New approaches to synthesize compounds for pharmaceutical research
Cohesion through resilient democratic communities
UC Santa Cruz chemists discover new process to make biodiesel production easier, less energy intensive
MD Anderson launches Institute for Cell Therapy Discovery & Innovation to deliver transformational new therapies
New quantum encoding methods slash circuit complexity in machine learning
New research promises an unprecedented look at how psychosocial stress affects military service members’ heart health
Faster measurement of response to antibiotic treatment in sepsis patients using Dimeric HNL
Cleveland Clinic announces updated findings in preventive breast cancer vaccine study
Intergenerational effects of adversity on mind-body health: Pathways through the gut-brain axis
Watch this elephant turn a hose into a sophisticated showering tool
Chimpanzees perform better on challenging computer tasks when they have an audience
New medical AI tool identifies more cases of long COVID from patient health records
Heat waves and adverse health events among dually eligible individuals 65 years and older
Catastrophic health expenditures for in-state and out-of-state abortion care
State divorce laws, reproductive care policies, and pregnancy-associated homicide rates
Emerging roles of high-mobility group box-1 in liver disease
[Press-News.org] New report adds heat to Levelling Up debate by revealing England's most 'insecure' regionsAccessing stable employment with fair pay and predictable hours is harder for workers in the North and Midlands, which can severely affect their living standards, health, and future job prospects.