Today’s stats paint a picture of a weakening labour market. Unemployment is rising (4.6%), vacancies are falling, and more people are returning to the labour market—often out of necessity, not opportunity. This should be a red flag ahead of tomorrow’s Spending Review. 🧵(1/6)

Spread the word! Exciting new fully funded PhD opportunity to research disabled people's lived experiences of benefit reform and the costs of disability. Deadline: 10 April @uofglasgow.bsky.social @uofgussp.bsky.social @uofgsps.bsky.social @sgsss.bsky.social @clemmiehilloconnor.bsky.social

Great to see our @irhws.bsky.social findings covered in @thetimes.com over the weekend, in this article exploring five years of remote and hybrid working since the pandemic (well worth a full read, despite the depressingly cynical picture accompanying it).

Great to see the @bigissue.com pick up on our policy paper today on disabled workers' experiences of remote and hybrid working @irhws.bsky.social with @lancasteruni.bsky.social @manmetuni.bsky.social & Universal Inclusion, supported by the @nuffieldfoundation.org www.bigissue.com/news/employm...

Pleased to see the launch of the first output from our @irhws.bsky.social project today, exploring disabled workers' experiences of remote & hybrid working and putting forward a number of policy recommendations for the government. Thread below on some of our key findings 👇

Great to see support for the proposed Employment Rights Bill across the political spectrum, with nearly 3 in 4 in support of banning zero hours contracts, widening access to Statutory Sick Pay and granting employment rights from day one. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Shows that zero-hours can be a very permanent state, with some people stuck in this for years not knowing how many hours/wages they'll get week to week.

Costly sticking plaster with ONS hiring temp staff to try and improve reliability of Labour Force Survey. For a longer term fix, why not make responding to the survey mandatory, like in Canada, Belgium, France, Germany etc. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Good to see @timewise.bsky.social in the news today highlighting flexible working inequalities. A key takeaway for me is the business case for supporting workers to find a better work-life balance, particularly when it comes to recruitment and retention. See below for a link to the full report 👇

A great 🧵here from @rebeccaflorisson.bsky.social on the need for more actual evidence and research across the back-to-office debate, rather than the "gut feelings" of individuals 👇

A great read showing how difficult it is for workers on UC to take on more hours. "The reality is that most low-paid workers are within the scope of Income Tax and National Insurance and so their effective deduction rate is 68 per cent." On min wage, this means people are left with £3.71 per hour.

Now that the @irhws.bsky.social is coming to an end, I'm happy to say that from next week I'll be beginning a new role as a Senior Policy Adviser at Acas: exciting times! I'll miss academia, but also looking forward to the chance to enact positive change from the inside, for a change 👀

Important New Year reading here, with this final report of a project exploring regional differences in the disability employment gap. Results show strong correlation between the size of the DEG and levels of economic deprivation across an area: well worth a deep dive into the data (see👇for more).

Had a great time on Friday filming for the first stage of production on our @irhws.bsky.social film 📽️ The idea is to give disabled workers a chance to talk about their remote & hybrid working experiences in their own words. Watch this space for the final product in the spring!

Two new research jobs with a health inequalities focus currently being advertised at Strathclyde @centrehealthpolicy.bsky.social - both would suit qualitative researchers who like working in large, cross-disciplinary teams, who also enjoy community engagement and policy engagement. Thread 1/3

A number of issues at play here, from the penalising nature of the current benefits system (e.g. suspending payments for anyone suspected of fraud), to the adoption of AI without a clear understanding of issues of bias, and to the need for greater oversight for how AI is used for policy more widely.

This speaks to today's report from the Work Foundation exploring the linkages between job quality and ill health (link below), as well as our findings for the @irhws.bsky.social project about the need for inclusive flexible working models to retain people with disabilities/ill health in employment.

Our Trustee, Kate Bell, says when considering trade offs between improving employment rights and costs to employers, we can’t just focus on short term adjustment costs. We need to take a long view of how we want our labour market to grow and evolve.

So how did the Plan for Change do? Good news is it contains plausible theories of change for how the targets will be met and, in some cases, how these will contribute towards overall missons. BUT the targets are v ambitious given tight budgets and will inevitably mean loss of focus on wider goals

Great to see this report published today by my project colleagues at the Work Foundation on the need to improve job quality to more effectively tackle economic inactivity across the UK. Access to flexible working models and concerted employer support at the onset of ill health considered crucial 👀

Great to be in London yesterday for the 2024 Early Career Network Day at @nuffieldfoundation.org HQ: as a funder they are putting a lot of effort into helping to support ECRs looking to pursue academic careers within an extremely precarious sector, so great to see these efforts continue.

Future of Work starter pack is live! Filled with people who are active on Bluesky and have enough expertise in the field that I personally want to read their posts 😎 go.bsky.app/4nEu3PY I surely missed people. Please tag anyone who belongs here! #futureofwork #remotework

Had a first go at creating a starter pack for social policy research. I’m new here and have surely missed lots so please say if you’d like added or removed!

Lots of helpful detail here on the Get Britain Working white paper: youth guarantee, localised employment support pilots, less of the tick box in jobcentres and more personalised focus. 🧵 1/3 www.personneltoday.com/hr/get-brita...

A brilliant exploration here from my colleague @asliatay.bsky.social on the inequalities concerning who has access to flexible working models in 2024, and the need for bolder action in expanding the right to flexibility to millions more workers across the UK: well worth a read.

Great report from #HealthierWorkingLives Commission on the link between poor job quality and workforce health: ✔️Job insecurity harms wellbeing ✔️Excessive/irregular hours predict ill health ✔️Lack of control leads to poor outcomes ✔️Adverse behaviours severely impact wellbeing

Really good to see this emphasis placed by the Health Commission for #HealthierWorkingLives on job insecurity as one of the key drivers of poor health in our ailing labour market. Not only are people falling sick, bad job qual and insecurity can also drive them out of work entirely.

Incredibly important new report out today from the @employmentstudies.bsky.social's Commission for #HealthierWorkingLives: a lot to dig into, and absolutely damning about the extent of insecure work in the UK, and the health impacts on the lives of millions of workers across the country.

Some fascinating findings emerging from @benbgeiger.bsky.social & team's FlexPlus project (details of study below), particularly around the need for employers and job design considerations to be a key part of exploring how to help people with disabilities thrive in the workplace: well worth a read 👀

Hello, I put together a starter pack for employment policy wonks since I couldn’t find one before! Let me know if I missed anyone or if you’d like to be added. 🔗https://go.bsky.app/4U7rFk8

Interesting findings here from a hybrid working case study, with rises in retention & job satisfaction rates among other positive metrics: and, crucially, a productivity rise that went counter to an expected drop. Highlights the mindset challenge for employers in accepting flexible working models.

👀 Looking forward to reading this.

Reflecting on a fascinating time as part of the Inclusive Remote and Hybrid Working Study over the past two years, as we approach the project's conclusion: 1,300 survey participants and 90 individual interviews later, really excited to be at the writing-up stage now. Final report in the spring!

6/6: The new Fair Work Agency could be a game-changer, improving enforcement across and between areas. But without more resources, impact may be limited. Better monitoring and funding are essential to ensure workers get their rightful pay and protections. www.lancaster.ac.uk/work-foundat...

It doesn't go far enough in some areas as I'd like (e.g. on the right to disconnect), but after 14 years of Conservative-led government it is incredibly refreshing to see such an ambitious agenda for employment rights reform in the UK (particularly around day one rights and unfair dismissal).

Heads up, the DWP's next release of employment figures (5 Nov) for disabled people will include info on job quality. This is a really good thing, as there's not only an employment gap, but also a pay gap and an insecure work gap — really important to track those differential outcomes.

Thank you to @rebeccaflorisson.bsky.social for highlighting our findings on how to make remote and hybrid working models more inclusive at the international level today, presenting at a webinar for Dutch Accessibility Week: great to be collaborating and engaging across borders for this project!

Good to see Microsoft not following Amazon's lead on demanding a full return to the office, and highlighting a thoughtful approach to flexible working: for context, the company have had a hybrid working model in place since 2022, and has increased its revenue by 15% year-over-year since then.

Really good piece by Luke Telford reflecting back on the failure of the Levelling Up Agenda by tracing the history of Middlesbrough within UK spatial policy. The paper concludes that "new thinking to challenge established economic orthodoxies" is necessary to prevent a repeat of past failings.

As part of our project exploring how to make remote and hybrid work more inclusive for those with disabilities and long-term health conditions, we are keen to interview employers about their own experiences in working in these ways: if you would like your voice heard, do please get in touch!

An interesting read about the short-termist nature of back-to-office mandates: "Businesses need to thoroughly self-assess and listen to their employees prior to making any organizational changes. A culture issue is not solved by making people vacate their home desk for an assigned cubicle seat."

It may not be what some employers want to hear, but making time working in the office more voluntarily attractive to workers (rather than relying on mandates) is an increasingly important part of employee engagement strategies: even more so for workers with disabilities and/or health conditions.

Excellent piece of work from @nestauk.bsky.social Nice summary here of the principles that can help build public support for climate policies (and arguably almost all policies) Public engagement, fairness and financial support/exceptions all key. These are explored in more detail within the report

Hard not to see predictions like this as anything other than increasingly out of touch with the labour market in 2024: access to flexible working models is an important recruitment and retention tool for those employers who have embraced it, and reversing these new ways of working is unrealistic.

1/3: Cost of living crisis is still biting. BBC radio 4 asked callers today about their household finances. One woman, in response to the question if she ever got a little treat, said: "I just want stability. Not great joy, or treats." Broke my heart & will stick with me.

Some really good (worrying) analysis here from @theifs.bsky.social today: ifs.org.uk/publications... Big story is how out-of-line UK is from rest of world, but most interesting bit for me is Table 1 on claims by time since last worked Half of *new claims* last worked 5+ years ago or never worked: 1/

While the headlines are currently dominated by large employers demanding a return to a five-day office week, we are keen to speak to organisations who have continued with remote and/or hybrid working to better understand their experiences: do please get in touch if you'd like your voice heard!

Disappointing to see the absence in this article of any arguments highlighting the benefits that disabled workers and those with a health condition can derive from remote/hybrid working: our conversations with employers have shown benefits for them, too (inc. sickness rates/productivity/retention).

Just as the UK/Europe discussion moves from "leaving" to "regretting" and in due course "rejoining", the ESRC is killing off the top research and social policy initiative around it. Foot-shooting should be a sport in the Commonwealth Games. Guaranteed gold for GB.