Employee well-being in Britain: perspectives from the margins of the labour market

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the employee well-being from the perspectives of: first, individuals who have personal characteristics stereotypically associated with employment at the margins of the labour market and second, of individuals employed in jobs stereotypically associated with jobs at the margins of the labour market. Design/methodology/approach - A set of OLS regressions is used to analyse a data set which has its origins in the Skills and Employment Surveys Series Data Set. Findings - The expectation was that, for the individuals identified, their well-being as measured by a series of indicators would be relatively low. This proved to be not always the case. To illustrate: individuals without qualifications (relative to those who possess qualifications) reported positive experiences of well-being; and individuals in jobs which took little time to master (relative to those in jobs which took time to learn) also reported positive experiences of well-being. Research limitations/implications - The subjective indicators of employee well-being available from the data set offer only a partial psychological perspective of the concept. Originality/value - Although the subject of employee well-being is well-researched, this paper focusses upon an increasingly prevalent group of workers within the labour market, often described as “disadvantaged” (or, using Standing’s terminology, the “precariat”). Furthermore, it reports some outcomes which do not conform to the conventional wisdom.