• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Friday, June 20, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

New report adds heat to Levelling Up debate by revealing England’s most ‘insecure’ regions

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
September 28, 2023
in Health
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
ADVERTISEMENT
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Accessing stable employment with fair pay and predictable hours is harder for workers in the North and Midlands, which can severely affect their living standards, health, and future job prospects.  

Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation

Credit: Work Foundation

Accessing stable employment with fair pay and predictable hours is harder for workers in the North and Midlands, which can severely affect their living standards, health, and future job prospects.  

A new report published by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University reveals the regions with the highest and lowest levels of ‘severely insecure’ work (employment that is involuntarily temporary or part-time, or when multiple forms of insecurity come together, such as casual or zero-hours contracts, or low or unpredictable pay).  

The study focuses on the nine Mayoral Combined Authorities and Greater London where over a third of England’s workforce – 11 million workers – live. Of these workers, 2.2 million (19.4%) are in severely insecure work. 

Analysis shows those in Tees Valley are most at risk of severely insecure employment, with levels of insecure work being 4.2 percentage points higher than the national average. This equates to one in four Tees Valley workers experiencing severely insecure work, compared with one in five workers nationally. The picture is even more stark in Middlesbrough, where nearly a third of workers (29.8%) are in severely insecure work – 10 percentage points higher than the national average. 

This is followed by workers in South Yorkshire, where insecure work is 1.9 percentage points higher than the national average, and the West Midlands, where the rate of insecure employment is 1.1 percentage points higher than the national average.  

Researchers state that major Government intervention is required to reduce levels of insecure work nationally. Even if the rate of severely insecure work in England’s four worst hotspots – Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, the West Midlands and North of Tyne – was reduced to the current national average (19.8%), this would only lift 40,000 people out of severely insecure work.  

“Too often, past debates about Levelling Up or reducing regional inequalities have failed to recognise the damaging role that insecure work plays in the lives of millions of people in England,” says Ben Harrison, Director of the Work Foundation. “The reality is, people in severely insecure work are paying the price of Government’s failure to strengthen employment rights and protections during this Parliament, and this failure is also holding back wider Levelling Up ambitions.” 

While insecure jobs tend to be concentrated in sectors such as hospitality, social care and administrative services, the report finds that job security within these sectors differs wildly across the country – depending on the nature of activities undertaken within places and the wider productivity of the region. For example, hospitality workers in the Liverpool City Region are less likely to face severe insecurity at work than those in the Tees Valley, in large part thanks to the scale and success of the sector on Merseyside in attracting a steady stream of major global events and wider investment. 

Findings suggest workers who live in Liverpool are the least likely of the regions analysed to be trapped in unstable employment, with the rate of insecure work being one percentage point less than the national average. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough region also performs comparatively well, with an insecure work rate that is 0.9 percentage points lower than the national average.  

However, even within these regions, there are significant pockets of severely insecure work. For example, more than one in four workers in Peterborough local authority are in severely insecure work (25.9%) despite Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority averaging at 18.9%. 

”Even in the regions that perform comparatively well, we need to see action to reduce severely insecure work,” Ben Harrison continues. “We know that those who face wider structural disadvantage in the labour market are more likely to find themselves in these kinds of jobs. Women, those with disabilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds are often particularly at risk, leaving these worker groups even more vulnerable to the cost-of-living crisis.  

“Fundamentally, we can’t reduce inequality in England without tackling insecure work and improving access to well paid, secure jobs.” 

Amongst the report recommendations, the Work Foundation calls for Government to introduce an Employment Bill in the next Parliament that puts job quality and security at the heart of labour market regulation. It also offers recommendations for improved access to predictable working patterns and improvements to Statutory Sick Pay, while calling on Government to support and work with Mayoral Combined Authorities and Greater London to explore how regions themselves can work towards reducing levels of insecure work in their area.  

To read the full report and recommendations, visit: www.theworkfoundation.com

 ENDS 

 

 



Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Targeting Cell Death to Combat Early Liver Cancer

Targeting Cell Death to Combat Early Liver Cancer

June 19, 2025
blank

Butyrate Restores Sleep in Parkinson’s Mice via BDNF

June 19, 2025

Practical Hours-Based Scheduling in Neonatology Care

June 19, 2025

Tracing Strontium Exposure Near Oil Wells via Urine

June 19, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • Green brake lights in the front could reduce accidents

    Study from TU Graz Reveals Front Brake Lights Could Drastically Diminish Road Accident Rates

    161 shares
    Share 64 Tweet 40
  • New Study Uncovers Unexpected Side Effects of High-Dose Radiation Therapy

    76 shares
    Share 30 Tweet 19
  • Pancreatic Cancer Vaccines Eradicate Disease in Preclinical Studies

    71 shares
    Share 28 Tweet 18
  • How Scientists Unraveled the Mystery Behind the Gigantic Size of Extinct Ground Sloths—and What Led to Their Demise

    65 shares
    Share 26 Tweet 16

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Terahertz Spectroscopy Maps Buried PN Junction Depths

Revolutionizing Rehabilitation: Virtual Reality Offers New Hope for Stroke Survivors to Recover Movement

Innovative Nanoparticles Enable Safer, More Efficient Drug Delivery

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.