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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the employee well-being from the perspectives of: first, individuals who have personal characteristics stereotypically associated with employment at the margins of the labour market and second, of individuals employed in jobs stereotypically associated with jobs at the margins of the labour market.Design/methodology/approach A set of OLS regressions is used to analyse a data set which has its origins in the Skills and Employment Surveys Series Data Set.Findings The expectation was that, for the individuals identified, their well-being as measured by a series of indicators would be relatively low. This proved to be not always the case. To illustrate: individuals without qualifications (relative to those who possess qualifications) reported positive experiences of well-being; and individuals in jobs which took little time to master (relative to those in jobs which took time to learn) also reported positive experiences of well-being.Research limitations/implications The subjective indicators of employee well-being available from the data set offer only a partial psychological perspective of the concept.Originality/value Although the subject of employee well-being is well-researched, this paper focusses upon an increasingly prevalent group of workers within the labour market, often described as “disadvantaged” (or, using Standing’s terminology, the “precariat”). Furthermore, it reports some outcomes which do not conform to the conventional wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose |!|#8211; The purpose of this paper is to estimate the extent of |!|#34;over-qualification|!|#34; (i.e. holding a qualification which is above that required to gain entry to the job being done) and |!|#34;skills under-utilisation|!|#34; (i.e. being in a job which does not make use of the knowledge and skills possessed) in the United Kingdom and to examine whether these conditions are correlated with age. Design/methodology/approach |!|#8211; The paper makes use of the 2006 Skills Survey. Cross tabulations of both conditions with age are produced and binomial probit estimates of both conditions are reported. Findings |!|#8211; It is estimated that 38 per cent are over qualified; 15 per cent are in jobs which do not make use of the knowledge and skills they possess; and age is correlated with the probability of being over qualified but not with the condition of under-utilising the knowledge and skills possessed. Social implications |!|#8211; Skills policy in the United Kingdom focuses almost exclusively upon increasing the supply of more highly qualified individuals. Given the extent of over-qualification and skills under-utilisation demonstrated in the paper, more effort should be made by policy makers to design and implement policies which increase the demand for highly skilled labour. Originality/value |!|#8211; The paper answers three questions: How prevalent are qualification mismatches? How prevalent are skills mismatches? To what extent are the two conditions of being over-qualified and being in a job which does not offer scope to make use of the knowledge and skills possessed correlated with age? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article analyzes different skills acquired during the training process and their effects on personal development on the basis of an investigation of European Social Fund Objective 4 Financed training programmes in small- to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Great Britain. The extent to which participating in the training may prompt a decision to quit and the probability that an individual leaves the firm at which the training took place is also investigated. The first conclusion from the empirical examination undertaken is that several outcomes, related to "personal development" from participating in the training process, may be described as "personal" to the individual concerned rather than "shared" with his/her employer and "psychic" rather than "pecuniary". This study established that 61 per cent of respondents reported that they were now more confident at work consequential of the training received. The second direct conclusion from the investigation is that, although training may facilitate mobility within the external labour market, not all training necessarily increases the likelihood that an individual will quit the firm.

This paper analyses wage rates in and quit rates from two production departments in an establishment based structured internal labour market in which labour allocation between grades and the wage rate of these grades are managerially determined. First, it is assumed that management makes effective use of the 'private' information about individual employees collected through time, proxied by tenure, to allocate them to the most appropriate tasks. However, in an OLS regression the elasticity of the wage rate with respect to tenure, although statistically significant, is not economically important. Further, it is assumed that this labour allocation process together with the wage structure will facilitate labour retention. However, in a probit model analysing the quit probability, the probability of quitting increases with the wage rate. Both results are compatible with an internal labour market labour allocation process and wage structure that is not competitive with wage rates prevailing in the external labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the role of the "sexy cover" on trade books of the late 1950s and early 1960s in the evolution of the modern British paperback novel. Topics addressed include the significance of the evolution of jacket artwork in the postwar period, the ways in which the jacket apparatus can play a leading interpretive role for the story, and the differences in the commercial and cultural origins of British and American paperbacks.

This article examines workforce reduction strategies in Great Britain, using data from the Workplace Industrial Relations Survey. Chi-square test of statistical independence was used to analyze the data. The following changes in working arrangements had been applied: short time working; lay offs; reduction in the number of shifts worked; and job sharing. The following methods were used to reduce employment: natural wastage; redeployment within the establishment; early retirement; voluntary and compulsory redundancy; and redeployment within the organization.