The Better Work Audit examines the quality of work in London over the last decade. To do this, we have examined public data across multiple dimensions of job quality in the capital based on the Carnegie UK Trust and RSA’s Good Work Standard quality of work measures.
Through this analysis, we hope to highlight London’s performance in delivering good jobs and call attention to the different components of work that have substantial influence on the quality of life of millions of workers in the capital.
The Audit examines change between both 2011 and 2019, to track progress across the last decade before the unprecedented impact of the pandemic, and between 2019 and 2020/2021 (where data is available) to explore how the pandemic has impacted quality of work in London.
This work builds on ‘Paved with gold? Views on job quality in the capital’ our last paper which explored what good work means to Londoners, as well as the drivers and impact of poor-quality employment in the capital.
The paper found that while an adequate salary (52 per cent) is prioritised by Londoners, workers value a wide range of factors including a good work-life balance (49 per cent), secure contract (22 per cent) and opportunities for progression (20 per cent). The paper also found that almost half of Londoners were dissatisfied with their salary and two-in-five were dissatisfied with opportunities for progression in the twelve months up to April 2021. Two-in-five Londoners had felt unwell due to work-related stress across the same period. The paper called for greater emphasis on the different factors of quality of work in the capital to help promote good work for all Londoners.
