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

Figures & data

Table 1. Work intensity, 1992–2017

	Strongly agree ‘job requires I work very hard’ (% of jobs)	Work involves working at very high speed at least ¾ of the time (% of jobs)	Work involves working to tight deadlines at least ¾ of the time (% of jobs)	Work Intensity Index
1992
Teacher	53.6	16.1	na	na
Other Professional	35.9	9.8	na	na
1997
Teacher	77.1	na	na	na
Other Professional	43.0	na	na	na
2001
Teacher	82.5	50.4	67.2	0.60
Other Professional	42.6	34.0	59.6	0.05
2006
Teacher	75.8	51.0	56.9	0.48
Other Professional	42.0	30.8	64.3	0.01
2012
Teacher	79.7	41.7	73.3	0.57
Other Professional	50.8	35.8	64.2	0.23
2017
Teacher	89.7	57.9	73.7	1.05
Other Professional	51.8	35.3	59.7	0.18
Annual trend for teachers^Ϯ	+ 0.15 **	+ 0.24 **	+ 0.12 **	+ 0.13 **
n	829	734	628	618

Base: those in work aged 20–60, all waves with available data pooled.

Ϯ Beta coefficient on year when underlying variable regressed with weights on year, sex, age, age squared, education stage, hours of work, among teachers; significance of year coefficient: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.

Table 2. Skills and discretion, 1992–2017

	Task Discretion	Organisational Participation^a (% of jobs)	Training Participation in Past Year (% of jobs)	Training Quality^b
1992
Teacher	2.68	45.2
Other Professional	2.50	45.8
1997
Teacher	2.48
Other Professional	2.50
2001
Teacher	2.22	40.2
Other Professional	2.29	42.7
2006
Teacher	2.27	31.0	91.6	40.6
Other Professional	2.34	34.5	81.2	36.0
2012
Teacher	2.26	30.2	88.5	38.6
Other Professional	2.29	24.8	79.0	36.5
2017
Teacher	2.13	20.1	86.0	31.4
Other Professional	2.28	37.8	83.3	48.7
Annual trend for teachers^Ϯ	− 0.23 **	− 0.17 **	−.0.12 *	− 0.06
n	829	734	460	407

Base: those in work aged 20–60, all waves with available data pooled.

a. ‘Quite a lot’, or ‘a great deal’ of say in changes affecting how job is done.

b. For those participating, per cent for whom the most recent training episode ‘improved skills a lot’.

Ϯ Beta coefficient on year when underlying variable regressed with weights on year, sex, age, age squared, education stage, hours of work, among teachers; significance of year coefficient: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.

Table 3. Pay and prospects

	Hourly Pay (2015 £)	High Job Security^a (% of workers)	High Promotion Expectation^b (% of workers)
1992
Teacher			15.2
Other Professional			34.3
1997
Teacher	14.7	81
Other Professional	19.3	67.2
2001
Teacher	17.7	91.8
Other Professional	20.8	82.4
2006
Teacher	19.6	89.1	24.8
Other Professional	24.5	82.7	30.9
2012
Teacher	16.6	79.7	32.5
Other Professional	24.6	70.6	31
2017
Teacher	15.4	85.7
Other Professional	21.6	88.3
Annual trend for teachers^Ϯ	+ 0.01	+ 0.02	+ 0.05 *
n	625	704	439

Base: those in work aged 20–60, all waves with available data pooled.

a. No chance, or very unlikely to lose job and become unemployed in the coming year.

b. At least a 75% chance of being promoted in the next 5 years in present organisation.

Ϯ Beta coefficient on year when underlying variable regressed with weights on year, sex, age, age squared, education stage, hours of work, among teachers; significance of year coefficient: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.

Table 4. Working time quality indicators

	Usual weekly hours incl. overtime (full-time workers)	Schedule Rigidity^a (% of workers)	Time-Off Rigidity^b (% of workers)
1997
Teacher	45.9
Other Professional	45.1
2001
Teacher	48.2
Other Professional	45.5
2006
Teacher	45.3	78.9
Other Professional	41.4	37.1
2012
Teacher	45.1	81.2	63.4
Other Professional	41.3	30.2	17.3
2017
Teacher	46.2	74.6	78.1
Other Professional	41.3	30.0	20.1
Annual trend for teachers^Ϯ	− 0.03	− 0.03	+ 0.04 *
n	551	459	229

Base: those in work aged 20–60, all waves with available data pooled.

a. Disagree or strongly disagree can decide start and finish times.

b. Somewhat or very difficult to take time off during work hours for family/personal matters.

Ϯ Beta coefficient on year when underlying variable regressed with weights on year, sex, age, age squared, education stage, among teachers; significance of year coefficient: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.

Table 5. Work-related well-being

	Enthusiasm	Contentment	Often or always comes home from work exhausted (% of workers)
1997
Teacher			72.0
Other Professional			43.7
2001
Teacher	0.050	−0.434	77.3
Other Professional	−0.009	−0.236	45.5
2006
Teacher	0.265	−0.386	72.2
Other Professional	0.104	−0.081	37.0
2012
Teacher	0.262	−0.409	75.3
Other Professional	−0.014	−0.33	40.2
2017
Teacher	−0.019	−0.658	84.9
Other Professional	−0.043	−0.199	45.0
Annual trend for teachers^Ϯ	− 0.02	− 0.09 *	+ 0.05
n	630	630	715

Base: those in work aged 20–60, all waves with available data pooled.

Ϯ Beta coefficient on year when underlying variable regressed with weights on year, sex, age, age squared, education stage, hours of work, among teachers; significance of year coefficient: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01.

Table 6. Accounting for teachers’ well-being changes, 2001 to 2006, and 2006 to 2017

	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)
Period of change	Enthusiasm Scale	Enthusiasm Scale	Contentment Scale	Contentment Scale	High Exhaustion	High Exhaustion
2001 to 2006	0.226*	0.266**	0.0530	0.0486	− 0.0498	− 0.0268
	(2.32)	(2.95)	(0.53)	(0.53)	(− 1.15)	(− 0.66)
2006 to 2017	−0.225*	−0.109	−0.248*	−0.0642	0.121**	0.0546
	(−2.14)	(−1.11)	(−2.30)	(−0.64)	(2.64)	(1.24)
Job Quality	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
n	601	601	601	601	618	618

t statistics in parentheses: * p < 0.05, ** p < 0.01

Coefficients are the estimated change over each period. The job quality variables included in models (2), (4) and (6) for each period of change are: Work Intensity Index, Task Discretion Index, the interaction between work intensity and task discretion, organisational participation, high job security, working hours. All models control for age and gender. Full regression estimates are shown in the online Appendix.