Learning to level up

This blog looks ahead to the 2021 Budget and sets out both short-term and longer-term priorities for the economy that merit consideration by the Chancellor.

While the furlough scheme continues to buffer employment levels, our analysis of the latest labour market data finds things are more turbulent than they might at first appear.

This blog explores the employment status of gig economy workers in The Netherlands, California and France, ahead of the UK Supreme Court ruling as whether Uber drivers should be considered employees.

Before the onset of the pandemic, Government planned to introduce various policy initiatives within its ‘levelling up’ agenda – including an overhaul of the skills system. After much delay, the (FE) White Paper – Skills for Jobs – was finally launched.

The longer this crisis goes on, the more likely it becomes that increasing numbers of workers will experience financial hardship, and therefore even larger impacts on their mental wellbeing too.

Work Foundation’s Policy Adviser Rebecca Florisson and Lancaster University’s Dr. Joe Deville collaborated on an article in the Conversation on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on workers’ financial and mental health implications.

Worker insecurity has been accelerated through the COVID-19 jobs crisis. Hundreds of thousands of workers have lost their job or seen their hours decrease, and the sectors most affected by the pandemic have a high proportion of workers in lower skilled occupations, often working under insecure terms.

The Supreme Court ruled that Uber drivers must be treated as workers rather than self-employed contractors. The precedent set by this ruling could have sizeable implications for the future of the gig economy in the UK.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a steep rise in unemployment in the UK. This is likely to be bad news for disabled workers and workers with long-term health conditions, who already faced severe employment inequality prior to the pandemic.