The UK economy is the sixth-largest in the world. The graduate labour market is still healthy and, by some measures, is as healthy as it has been in some time. The country’s unemployment rate is currently at a respectably low of 4%. Although there is intense competition for graduate jobs, those who possess the necessary credentials, abilities, and experience stand a decent chance of finding employment.
The UK economy is dominated by the services sector, with banking, insurance, and business services serving as major engines of expansion. Metals, chemicals, aircraft, shipbuilding, automotive, food processing, textiles and apparel, design, the arts, and electrical and communications equipment are a few other significant industries.
In the workplace, job happiness is crucial for both employees and organisations. Employees who enjoy their work will live better than those who do not, and companies that maintain employee happiness frequently see a wide range of favourable workplace consequences.
Recent data indicates that 1 in 10 UK workers might contemplate relocating abroad to achieve a better work-life balance. Only 17% of British workers, according to a recent UK YouGov poll, say they love their jobs. According to Personal Group, more than half of UK employees consider themselves to be miserable at work.
Critical yet marvellous research on UK workers’ whole earnings, which aims to account for wellness as well as cash income, has shown the jobs where the reality of the working day undermines the advantage of wage and those that in addition to pay, offer the best rewards.
According to the study, which was conducted by eminent economists from the London and Paris schools of economics, the greatest professions are those that give people autonomy and the satisfaction of doing tasks, while the worst careers include those in customer service, administration, or welfare.
Additionally, it asserts that when wellbeing is taken into account, the UK’s economic disparity, which is already the worst in western Europe, is a third higher than previously thought, resulting in a hidden “real income” gap.
The World Happy Report, which rates the UK as the 24th happiest nation in terms of average life satisfaction, was co-edited by Prof. Richard Layard, a Labour peer and the father of “happiness economics,” and Maria Cotofan.
The degree of societal divisions is underestimated by traditional economic measurements like the gross domestic product (GDP), which in turn threatens political stability, according to academics studying welfare in Europe and the US. They point out that there have been an increase in anti-government demonstrations in recent years in the UK, US, France, Italy, and Spain. Analysis also revealed that voters’ perceptions of their income were a much better indicator of their vote for or against Brexit than their actual income.
Chief executives and elected officials like MPs are at the top of the list of full profits. Despite making less money, supervisors in the construction and building trades, plasterers, floorers, wall tilers, and decorators rank at the top due to their reported life satisfaction. When wellness is taken into account, among the high earners are sports coaches, flight engineers, ship and hovercraft officers, and fitness instructors.
Call centre employees, lawyers, IT support staff, local government administrators, hospital porters, kitchen helpers, bartenders, waitstaff, and theme park attendants are among the occupations where a lack of happiness reduces full earnings. Workers with more full wages typically have autonomy, management responsibilities, skill mastery, or public service employment.
According to the study, some low-paying jobs, such those in customer service, as shop assistants, and as low-skilled labourers, also have the worst non-pecuniary features, which leads to full earnings that are below actual earnings. This last study may show the advantages of working outdoors; some elementary construction and agricultural workers have greater full wages if the value of facilities is taken into account.
The results indicate that seeing a task through to completion also brings enjoyment; decorators and tilers regularly take pleasure in this. Their co-workers on the construction site, the steel erectors, bricklayers, and carpenters, made less money overall. They also raise concerns about the detrimental effects of vocations like call centre agents and kitchen porters, which are mostly reactive.
People with degrees made more money in their entirety than those with merely A-levels, GCSEs, or other lower-level credentials. Greater wellbeing inequality for the less educated is reflected in the fact that average life satisfaction varies less for more highly educated individuals.
Taxation and raising the minimum wage are two ways to lessen the hard monetary imbalance, and if trade unions are effective in improving overall working conditions, this could contribute to broader wellbeing.
The study comes to the conclusion that occupation is one of the most crucial decisions that people make.