In recent years, there has been increased recognition that when assessing the state of the labour market it is important to pay attention to not just the quantity of jobs, but also the quality of jobs.
Reflecting this, the Northern Ireland Executive (2016: 14) recently made a commitment to ‘increase the proportion of people working in good jobs’ in Northern Ireland. Labour market reporting in Northern Ireland however has persistently focused on the numbers of people employed, unemployed and economically inactive and so there is little empirical evidence detailing the quality of jobs.
This Research InBrief summarises the results of a recent NERI working paper (No. 38) which sought to provide a clearer understanding of both overall job quality, as well as divisions in job quality amongst those in employment in Northern Ireland.
