The topic of whether a strong labour market delivers a good labour market is gaining significant attention, particularly since the Economy Minister has underscored the importance of ‘good jobs’ , says Martha Sargent
The latest labour market statistics reveal a positive trend: between December and February 2024, unemployment stood at record lows (2.2%), and employment rates reached 71.7 percent, the highest level since the pandemic, indicating a potential improvement in job quality.
For the first time since 2001, Northern Ireland did not have the highest level of economically inactive (26.7%) in the UK, with higher rates across Wales (28.1%) and the northeast (26.9%).
The strength of the labour market creates a context in which we can challenge ourselves on whether the jobs we have are ‘good’. This has not always been the case.
Since the pandemic and the Great Financial Crash, Northern Ireland’s focus has been the retention and recovery of jobs through downturns. In total, Northern Ireland lost over 40,000 jobs following these economic shocks. Encouragingly, as the recovery has taken hold, Northern Ireland reached peak levels of employment with over 904,000 jobs in 2022.
So, what does this tell us about the quality of jobs available?
Building a resilient economy, one that’s focused on jobs that suit the individual and promotes the overall economy, is a pressing need. This requires a strong emphasis on good, quality jobs—a concept that has now become a cornerstone of the Department for Economy's policy following the Economy Minister Conor Murphy’s ‘economic vision’, which states “the promotion of good jobs” as one of four key objectives, along with promoting regional balance, raising productivity and reducing carbon emissions.
This idea of ‘good jobs’ has also been promoted in the Resolution Foundation’s Creating a Good-Jobs Economy in the UK, in which it found that the British economy falls short on inequality metrics and that regional patterns in productivity play out in job quality.
What makes a “good job”?
For now, Northern Ireland does not have a clearly defined position on what a ‘good’ job is. What is clear is that it is a mix of areas such as pay, job satisfaction, HR policies, inclusivity, etc., and as such, is debated among policymakers, academics, and economists.
In fact, the Department for Economy is currently debating such concepts as part of its measure for the ‘good jobs’ objective announced in the Minister’s economic vision.
The Resolution Foundation has provided some insight into what makes a ‘good job’, such as work that pays well enough to allow for a reasonable living standard, stability and security, and opportunities for career progression.
Northern Ireland’s New Decade New Approach 2020 includes decent working conditions, security of tenure and a worker's level of autonomy in the analysis, and more recently, the Nevin Economic Research Institute labelled ‘good jobs’ as being secure with strong employee-management relations.
The body of research on ‘good jobs’ has highlighted that there is no clear path to tread in measuring or observing ‘good jobs’ for the Department of the Economy.
However, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency's Work Quality reports can provide some insight into the indicators that could be used.
The latest data for some elements of consideration shows that 84.5 percent of all employee jobs are paid the real living wage or above; 96.9 percent are in secure employment; and 78.4 percent reported having job satisfaction.
Thinking about ‘good jobs’ provides a more holistic approach to economic development.
Improvements to well-being because of a ‘good job’ are expected to lead to wider economic benefits for society and the individual.
Firms that place value on ‘good jobs’ should also experience higher levels of job satisfaction among workers, leading to an increase in productivity and a reduction in staff turnover and should attract more talent.
A people-focused approach to ‘good jobs’ encourages security of employment, training and skills development to achieve the national skills gap challenge.
As the old saying goes, ‘If you can measure it, you can manage it’. We should add ‘if you can define it, you can measure it’.
Seeing the Department take steps toward defining and tracking ‘good jobs’ can only serve to strengthen the economy and add to Northern Ireland being viewed as a more attractive place to do business.
Martha Sargent is Assistant Manager of Economic Advisory at Grant Thornton Northern Ireland
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