Secure jobs

Metrics

• The proportion of employed people who expect to not remain in the same job in 12 months’ time due to involuntary reasons
• The proportion of employees that had irregular working arrangements
• The proportion of employees that did not have access to paid leave entitlements

Why does this matter

Job security is a broad and multi-faceted concept. Elements of a job that contribute to job security include, but are not limited to, the likelihood of a worker keeping their job, access to paid leave entitlements, and regularity of hours or a minimum number of hours.

Has there been progress

There are several ways of measuring job security. Looking at a selection of measures suggests some workers may not have adequate job security. Over the past decade, most metrics of job security have remained stable:

• The proportion of employed people who expect to not remain in the same job in 12 months’ time due to involuntary reasons has been relatively steady since August 2015, ranging from 1.5 per cent to 2.1 per cent.
• The proportion of employees that had irregular working arrangements has been stable from 2014 to 2022 at around 27 to 29 per cent.
• The proportion of employees that did not have access to paid leave entitlements has been relatively stable over the past decade, with between 22 and 26 per cent of all employees not having access to paid leave entitlements.

How does this differ across cohorts

Women are more likely to experience job insecurity than men.

• Generally, a greater proportion of women typically expect to not remain in the same job in 12 months’ time compared with men. In August 2022, 1.8 per cent of employed women expected to not remain in the same job in 12 months’ time for involuntary reasons, compared with 1.4 per cent of men.
• Women are marginally less likely than men to have irregular working arrangements (27.2 per cent in August 2022 compared with 29.1 per cent).
• Women are slightly more likely to not have access to paid leave entitlements than men (23.4 per cent of in February 2023 compared with 20.7 per cent).