In recent decades there has been increased recognition that in assessing the state of the labour market we need to move beyond a sole focus on job quantity and give further credence to the importance of job quality (OECD, 2015).
This has arisen partly out of increased recognition of the potentially profound influence which one’s job can have on an individual’s health and well-being outcomes.
This Research InBrief summarises previous findings from an NERI working paper (No. 38) which looks at the relationship between job quality in Northern Ireland and the health and well-being outcomes of workers.
Evidence of the fundamental importance of job quality for a number of health and well-being outcomes is striking. Those with poor quality ‘bad jobs’ are much more likely to have a long-standing illness or disability, poor general health, and low overall life satisfaction. Whilst the corrosive effects of unemployment for individual health and well-being outcomes is well-established these findings demonstrate the important and powerful influence which having a poor quality ‘bad job’ has for the health and well-being of workers.
