Firms· Work Take a chance on me How can employers be incentivised to employ NEETs? 29 June 2026 by Nye Cominetti and Julia Diniz and Lindsay Judge and Imogen Stone and Greg Thwaites As the number of UK 16-24-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) tipped the 1 million mark in the first quarter of 2026, we assess how employers can best be incentivised to ‘take a chance’ on more young people today. READ MORE
Work Take it or leave it Workers’ experiences of power in low-paid and precarious sectors 28 May 2026 by Melanie Simms and Hannah Slaughter This briefing note examines workers’ experience of their power in low-paying sectors of the economy, including how much say they have over their pay and conditions, and what options they have for moving jobs if they are unhappy. READ MORE
Health and disability· Work Lost in transition An examination of why the UK NEET rate is high and rising 28 April 2026 by Lindsay Judge and Alex Clegg and Julia Diniz and Nye Cominetti and Imogen Stone This report investigates why the UK’s NEET rate has been rising since 2019, and why it has long been higher than in many other countries. READ MORE
Labour market enforcement· Work· Labour Market Outlook Labour Market Outlook Q1 2026 7 April 2026 by Hannah Slaughter The Employment Rights Act marks the biggest overhaul of workers’ rights in a generation. But even the most ambitious employment rights will benefit workers only if they are enforced effectively. And compliance with existing labour market rights is already patchy: an estimated 445,000 jobs were paid below the minimum wage in 2025, 1.4 million workers … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Work· Inequality & poverty· Mobility The long shadow How childhood disadvantage depresses the earnings of university graduates in England 24 March 2026 by Julia Diniz and Richmond Egyei and Anna Stansbury and Greg Thwaites Childhood poverty casts a long shadow over graduates’ earnings. This briefing note shows that even after achieving the same grade from the same university and working for the same employer a decade later, those who were in deep poverty still earn substantially less than those who were not. READ MORE
Incomes· Work· Housing· Social security· Unsung Britain Unsung Britain A portrait of the country's poorer half 10 February 2026 by Resolution Foundation The 13 million working-age families across the poorer half of the country are widely courted by politicians. No party can win elections without their votes, and the country cannot succeed without their needs being met. They are working harder and caring more, yet remain poorly understood and badly served, which is why we have dubbed them ‘Unsung Britain’. In this book we … Continued READ MORE
Work· Labour Market Outlook Labour Market Outlook Q4 2025 15 December 2025 by Nye Cominetti and Hannah Slaughter Employment has fallen over the past two years and is substantially lower than it was before the pandemic. Perhaps surprisingly given its central place in policy debates, participation is essentially unchanged compared to pre-pandemic: rising inactivity due to ill-health has been offset by long-term declines in family-related inactivity. Instead, rising unemployment, rather than falling participation, is the counterpart to falling employment. READ MORE
Work Care to negotiate? Making a success of the Adult Social Care Negotiating Body 11 December 2025 by Charlie McCurdy and Melanie Simms and Hannah Slaughter This briefing note sets out recommendations to ensure the new Adult Social Care Negotiating Body can get off the ground quickly, while leaving scope to iterate and refine over time, so that it can deliver lasting improvements to the pay and conditions of England’s 1.5 million social care workers. READ MORE
Work Unfair dismissal – Day One Frights The Government should keep but reduce ‘qualifying periods’ for unfair dismissal protection 26 October 2025 by Nye Cominetti The Government’s Employment Rights Bill is important and welcome … The Government’s Employment Rights Bill (ERB) is nearing the end of its parliamentary journey. It’s a sprawling, 300-page piece of legislation containing a lot of measures (27 by one count), covering big areas like collective bargaining in social care, union law, rights for shift workers, … Continued READ MORE
Labour Market Outlook· Work Labour Market Outlook Q3 2025 26 August 2025 by Greg Thwaites and Nye Cominetti and Hannah Slaughter Employment and the employment rate are falling according to Resolution Foundation estimates, but not according to the official statistics based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The official data also suggests that unemployment has risen by 0.5 percentage points over the past year, and that the labour market is loosening rapidly – but is the official data right about this? READ MORE
Health and disability· Incomes· Work Opening doors How to incentivise employers to create more opportunities for disabled workers 24 July 2025 by Ben Baumberg Geiger and Louise Murphy Improving employment outcomes for disabled people is essential not just for raising living standards, but also for supporting economic growth. To increase the employment of disabled people, the report proposes a new employer-focused strategy built on four principles: reimbursement, reporting, reintegration and recruitment. READ MORE
Labour market enforcement· Work Low Pay Britain 2025 Where next for the Government’s employment reforms? 3 July 2025 by Nye Cominetti and Charlie McCurdy The Employment Rights Bill (ERB) currently making its way through parliament is a big deal for low-paid workers, who stand to gain the most from its changes. But it’s also a big deal for the country, with the row between business groups and unions over its impacts being testament to that. READ MORE
Work· Cities and regions The power of place The role of place in driving regional pay inequalities 23 June 2025 by Richmond Egyei and Emily Fry and Tasos Kitsos and Dalila Ribaudo and Greg Thwaites and Enrico Vanino Tracking English early-career workers using the Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset, we show one-third of regional wage gaps arise from place, not people. Identical full-time workers earn about £1,300 (5 per cent) more by moving from Dudley to Harrogate. READ MORE
Migration· Work Precarious prospects Understanding precarious work among foreign-born workers 14 April 2025 by Hannah Slaughter and Imogen Stone This briefing note examines the experiences of precarious work among foreign-born workers, how poor enforcement of rules can drag down standards for UK-born workers too, and what policy can do to respond. READ MORE
Incomes· Work Minimum wage, maximum pressure? The impact of 2025’s minimum wage and employer NICs increases 30 March 2025 by Nye Cominetti and Greg Thwaites Looking ahead to the future of the minimum wage, we make four recommendations to the Government and the Low Pay Commission (LPC). First, tax policy should go with the grain of minimum wage policy, not against it… READ MORE
Work Unstable Pay New estimates of earnings volatility in the UK 4 March 2025 by Mike Brewer and Nye Cominetti and Stephen P. Jenkins This report uses a newly available dataset – payroll data held by HM Revenue and Customs on over 250,000 working-age people covering April 2014 to March 2019 – to look at monthly and weekly volatility in employee pre-tax earnings. READ MORE
Work· Labour Market Outlook Labour Market Outlook Q4 2024 30 December 2024 by Nye Cominetti and Hannah Slaughter In this Labour Market Outlook, we examine how the Government should approach extending Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) to the lowest earners, and in particular what replacement rate – the proportion of their earnings that workers will get while off sick – to set for those workers who will be newly eligible. There is a clear … Continued READ MORE
Work· Unsung Britain A hard day’s night The labour market experience of low-to-middle income families 12 December 2024 by Nye Cominetti and Louise Murphy This report describes the labour market experiences of low-to-middle income families and how these have changed over the past quarter century. It explores those families’ employment, pay, experiences at work, and their feelings about changing jobs and progressing in work. READ MORE
Work Get Britain’s Stats Working Exploring alternatives to Labour Force Survey estimates 20 November 2024 by Adam Corlett Given continued concern about the accuracy of many of the UK’s existing labour market statistics, this report presents an alternative assessment of what may have happened to employment, unemployment and inactivity rates since 2019. READ MORE
Labour Market Outlook· Work Labour Market Outlook Q3 2024 The Growth and Skills Levy 28 September 2024 by Sofia Corcoran and Louise Murphy In its first few months in office, the new Labour Government has announced a host of new skills policies. Arguably the most high-profile of these is the planned new “flexible” Growth and Skills Levy, replacing the previous Government’s Apprenticeship Levy. READ MORE
Work Low Pay Britain 2024 Examining the Government’s proposed employment reforms 5 September 2024 by Nye Cominetti The Government is planning the largest set of workplace reforms in a generation, with plans to overhaul multiple areas of employment policy. These have the potential to make real inroads in the problem of insecurity at work, and would particularly benefit low-paid workers, who bear the brunt of labour market insecurity. The Government is yet … Continued READ MORE
General Election 2024· Work Job done? Assessing the labour market since 2010 and the challenges for the next government 25 June 2024 by Nye Cominetti and Hannah Slaughter The record on the labour market since 2010 is mixed – strong employment growth (albeit a partial reversal post-pandemic), alongside a 14-year real wage stagnation. On their plans for the future, the Conservative party would stick with the status quo, while Labour propose the biggest overhaul of labour market policy in a generation, including a higher minimum wage and a ‘day one’ right to protection from unfair dismissal. READ MORE
Firms· Work Firm foundations Understanding why employers use flexible contracts 25 April 2024 by Hannah Slaughter At the end of 2023, more than one-in-eight (13 per cent) employees in UK were working on some form of flexible contract that can be viewed as ‘precarious’, accounting for 3.8 million workers nationwide. From variable-hours and zero-hours contracts to temporary work such as casual, seasonal or short-term employment, flexible contracts often entail considerable uncertainty … Continued READ MORE
Labour Market Outlook· Work Labour Market Outlook Q2 2024 Happy 25th birthday to the minimum wage 27 March 2024 by Nye Cominetti and Hannah Slaughter This year’s minimum wage uprating is large: roughly 1.6 million workers stand to benefit directly on 1 April when the adult rate rises to £11.44 – giving a cash increase of 9.8 per cent and a real-terms increase of 7.8 per cent. These are the third largest annual increases in the minimum wage’s history. 1 … Continued READ MORE
Incomes· Health and disability· Work A U-shaped legacy Taking stock of trends in economic inactivity in 2024 23 March 2024 by Louise Murphy In an election year, jobs and benefits are often centre stage. Alongside the UK’s stagnant wage growth, there is one big issue that will face the next government: the rises in economic inactivity and health-related benefit claims. Real pay growth, unemployment and vacancies have all returned roughly to 2019 rates. But there is one aspect … Continued READ MORE
