In times where the lives of workers are being affected drastically and in unexpected ways as a result of globalisation, technological advances and now the coronavirus, research on employment and labour markets gains more salience. Policy makers will have to intervene in areas, which are normally the preserve of “markets”.

This project is hosted by the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute (III) and generously funded by the British Academy’s Global Professorship programme. We are working with colleagues at III and more broadly at the LSE to deliver ground breaking research on the quality of employment on a global scale. Our research teams brings together colleagues from several regions of the world as well as incorporating younger researchers, who are at different stages of their career and are working on subjects related to the quality of employment and multidimensional inequalities.

In times where the lives of workers are being affected drastically and in unexpected ways as a result of globalisation, technological advances and now the coronavirus, research on employment and labour markets gains more salience. Policy makers will have to intervene in areas, which are normally the preserve of “markets”.

Our research shows that the combined effects of globalisation and deregulation have made employment opportunities more unequal in both developed and developing countries. Both social protection and vocational training systems are fundamental to developing individual capabilities and freedoms, but neither can be sustained if the labour markets that underlie them are too precarious. Multidimensional inequalities exacerbate this process. We believe that there is a significant and positive role that governments and policy makers must play in devising policies which can balance the needs of workers and firms while investing in the long-term common good.

To take informed policy decisions on employment matters, it is vital to generate appropriate sources of data, measure the changing characteristics of the labour markets and be able to analyse how these changes interact with other socioeconomic phenomena. In other words, we must measure not just the quantity of employment, but also the quality of employment, which is what this project proposes to do.

This project is hosted by the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute (III) and generously funded by the British Academy’s Global Professorship programme. We are working with colleagues at III and more broadly at the LSE to deliver ground breaking research on the quality of employment on a global scale. Our research teams brings together colleagues from several regions of the world as well as incorporating younger researchers, who are at different stages of their career and are working on subjects related to the quality of employment and multidimensional inequalities.