Cardiff School of Social Sciences

Skills and Employment Survey 2012 (SES2012)

The Skills and Employment Survey 2012 (SES2012) is a national study of people aged 20-65 who are in paid work. The survey focuses upon the work that people do and how working life has changed over time.  The 2012 survey is the latest in a series of studies which began in 1986.  A total of 3,200 took part in the 2012 survey. Initial findings are outlined in six reports (see below).

Reports

Fear at Work in Britain

• Fear of job loss has increased sharply, especially over the period following the recession of 2008-09. Men are consistently more worried about job loss than women. But the increase in concern about job loss has been particularly great among female employees.
• In 2012 just under one third (31%) of employees were anxious about unfair treatment at work. Just over half of all employees (52%) reported anxiety about loss of job status.
• In the past both fear of job loss and fear of unfair treatment at work were far more common in the private than in the public sector. In 2012 fear of job loss was higher in the public than in the private sector, while fear of unfair treatment had become more similar to the level in the private sector. Fear of status loss was also higher in the public sector.
• Fear of unfair treatment and fear of loss of status were both increased by the experience of technical and organisational change in recent years. An important factor offsetting fear at work was the degree of participation allowed to employees with respect to organisational decisions.

Work Intensification in Britain

• Work intensification has resumed in Britain since 2006. Both the speed of work has quickened and the pressures of working to tight deadlines have also risen to record highs.
• Work has intensified more sharply for women, and especially for women working full-time who have experienced some of the largest rises in work intensity since 2006.
• Work intensification is associated with technological change, which is therefore effort-biased. Although the resumption of work intensification may also be due to the recession, contrary to some predictions high work intensity is not associated on average with downsizing.

Job-related Well-being Control in Britain

• Happiness at work can be measured by ‘enthusiasm’ for, and ‘contentment’ with, the job. In both these dimensions, job-related well-being in British workplaces fell between 2006 and 2012. There was a small drop in the average population-wide score on the Enthusiasm scale, and a sharp fall in the score on the Contentment scale.
• The fall in the Enthusiasm scale was only for men, and greatest among those with low education achievements.
• The falls can partly be accounted for by rising insecurity, work intensification, and increased downsizing.
• There was also a notable rise in Job Stress, and a fall in Job Satisfaction.

Skills at Work in Britain

• Qualification requirements of jobs have risen over the last quarter of a century. By 2012 jobs requiring degrees on entry reached an all time high, while jobs requiring no qualifications fell to historically low levels.
• Yet, overall the evidence for continued upskilling is mixed, because there has also been a shortening of training and learning times for jobs – a reversal of trends previously recorded. The importance of computing skills at work continued to grow, albeit less rapidly than in the past, but the rise in most other generic skills came to a halt.
• For the two decades from 1986 to 2006 the prevalence of over-qualification had been rising, but it fell between 2006 and 2012. Although mismatches remain quite high, this turnaround may signal more effective use of qualifications at work by employers.

Skills at Work in Britain - Mini Report (PDF: 353KB)

Training in Britain

• The volume of training has fallen: the proportion of British workers engaged annually in more than ten hours’ training declined from 38% in 2006 to 34% in 2012. This fall is especially concentrated among women.
• There have been no changes between 2006 and 2012 in the extent of certification of training or in its perceived contribution to skills enhancement. But fewer people are satisfied with the training they receive, and fewer report that their training helps them to enjoy their job more.
• The quality of training, like its volume, is greater for those workers with more prior education; this gradation reinforces inequality.
• There is a rising demand by workers at all levels of education to receive workplace training.

Training in Britain - Mini Report (PDF: 484KB) 

Job Control in Britain

• Overall, the level of task discretion (employees’ immediate control over their work tasks) has been stable since 2001, following a sharp decline in the 1990s. But the trends since 2006 have been different for men and women, with women seeing a small rise, and men a further fall in task discretion.
• There was a rise in the proportion of employees working in semi-autonomous teams (those with significant control over their work activities) from 14% in 2006 to 18% in 2012. This rise reverses a previous long-term decline.
• Between 2006 and 2012 there was also a rise in the proportion of jobs using self-managed teams, from 4% to 7%.
• Halting a previous upward trend, there has been little change between 2006 and 2012 in formal provisions for participation in wider organisational decisions. Yet, the proportion of employees who report that they have a great deal or quite a lot of say over work organisation declined from 36% to 27% between 2001 and 2012.

Job Control in Britain - Mini Report (PDF: 444KB)

Technical reports