British teachers’ declining job quality: evidence from the Skills and Employment Survey

Abstract

ABSTRACT I analyse trends in teachers’ job quality in Britain, using the framework of the European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions, with data from the British Skills and Employment Survey. The issue of increasing concern is not work hours, which have remained long but stable; rather, teachers are working considerably more intensively than in earlier years. Moreover, their task discretion, their participation in work organisation and their training have declined. Their working time has also become less flexible. While the chances of promotion have increased since 1992, wages fell after 2006. Three indicators of teachers’ work-related well-being – Warr’s scales of Enthusiasm and Contentment, and the frequency of end-of-day exhaustion – have worsened since 2006. The changes in job quality account in part for the changes in well-being. Poor job quality is potentially important for understanding the problem of declining teacher retention.