Work Quality in Northern Ireland Statistics - March 2026
Date published:
The latest Work Quality statistical publication was published today by the Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA).
This analysis builds on six previous publications and compares the quality of work over six years for key cohorts; sex, age, deprivation quintile, and skill level, where commentary on the latest release is provided below.
Introduction
The release provides analysis for seventeen work quality indicators over six years. The suite of work quality indicators include subjective and objective measures, relates to employees aged 18 and over and has been derived from the Labour Force Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
Six of the seventeen work quality indicators have had significant improvements since 2021
- Of the fourteen indicators included since 2021, six have experienced significant improvements; neither over nor under skilled, not having worked overtime (paid or unpaid), job security, job satisfaction, flexible working, and earning at least the real living wage.
- Job security has remained consistently high across the time series, with nearly all employees in secure employment (97% in 2025). This trend held when examined by sex, age, skill level, and deprivation quintile.
- For the most recent period, 2025, the hardest indicator to achieve was the participation in training indicator, with approximately one fifth of NI employees reporting that they had participated in training within the last 13 weeks (21%). This was followed by trade union membership (33%) with just over half of employees in flexible work (55%), similar to previous years.
Notable differences emerged when analysing key cohorts
- When comparing by sex, the largest difference between male and female employees related to flexible working, with a greater proportion of females in flexible work (64%) than males (45%). Although this is a substantial 19 percentage points (pps) difference, the proportion of males reporting flexible work has grown by 8 percentage points since 2020.
- The largest differences were recorded between those in high skilled and low skilled jobs. While almost all employees in high skilled jobs earned at least the Real Living Wage (95%), this figure dropped to 69% for those in low skilled jobs.
- When factoring in age, employees aged 18 to 39 reported better opportunities for career development (62%) than employees aged 40 and over (50%), while a larger proportion of those aged 40 and over were earning at least the Real Living Wage (RLW) (89%) than employees aged 18 to 39 (76%).
- More employees living in the least deprived areas earned at least the Real Living Wage (88%), reported opportunities for career progression (60%) and job satisfaction (83%) than those in the most deprived areas (76%, 50%, and 76% respectively).
Notes to editors:
1. The statistical bulletin and associated tables are available at on the NISRA website.
2. A work quality page, which also includes links to three previous publications and a live work plan, is available on the NISRA website.
3. This release provides statistics for seventeen work quality indicators: job security, earnings, bullying or harassment, neither under nor over skilled, career progression, meaningful work, line manager support, employee involvement in decision-making, flexible working, job satisfaction, not having had an accident at work, trade union membership, participation in training, underemployment, overemployment, working overtime (paid or unpaid) and not having a zero-hours contract. The earnings indicator is sourced from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and the remaining ten are sourced from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).
4. Analysis is based on employees aged 18 or over between 2020 to 2025 in line with data available from ASHE.
5. The definitions for the seventeen work quality indicators can be found in the definitions section within the publication.
6. The survey reference date (30th April 2025) was outside the time period for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) grant; therefore 2025 earnings were not affected by furlough. Over the pandemic period, earnings estimates were affected by changes in the composition of the workforce and the impact of the CJRS, making interpretation difficult. In particular, the 2020 and 2021 data are subject to more uncertainty and should be treated with caution.
7. The Real Living Wage (RLW) is announced in November each year and must be implemented by the following May. As such it is likely that the previous year’s living wage was still in place when the survey was completed (i.e. the 2025 ASHE data relates to the pay period including April 2025, at which time the 2024/2026 Real Living Wage of £12.60 may not have been applied). The previous year’s RLW is therefore used to calculate the percentage earning at least the RLW.
8. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency wishes to thank the participating households and businesses for taking part in the Labour Force Survey and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
9. The Work Quality in Northern Ireland report will be of interest to policy makers, public bodies, the business community, banks, economic commentators, academics and the general public with an interest in the local economy.
10. For media enquiries contact the Department for the Economy Press Office at pressoffice@economy-ni.gov.uk.
11. The Executive Information Service operates an out of hours service for media enquiries only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
12. To keep up to date with news from the Department you can follow us on the following social media channels:
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13. Feedback is welcomed and should be addressed to: Responsible statistician: Patrick O’Kane, Economic & Labour Market Statistics Branch (ELMS), patrick.okane@nisra.gov.uk or Tel: 028 9025 5161.