ISER is celebrating after winning two prestigious Future Research Leaders awards from the ESRC. Many congratulations to Dr Andrea Salvatori and Mr Peter Lugtig. Dr Salvatori’s project is entitled ‘Job polarisation and job quality’. Mr Lugtig’s project is entitled ‘Survey data quality in panel surveys: trade-offs between non response and measurement errors’.
Colin Riordan, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Essex said:
“The Future Research Leaders Scheme is intended to support outstanding early career researchers to carry out excellent research and to develop all aspects of their research and knowledge exchange skills. The latest success is a further validation of our approach of investing in people as well as buildings; this has always been fundamental to the way we do things in Essex and I’m delighted to see that it continues to be a strategic strength of this University.”
Dr Salvatori explains his research:
“Labour markets across Europe and the US have become increasingly polarised, as the number of bad (low-pay, low-skills) jobs and good (high-pay, high-skills) jobs has increased relative to mid-ranking jobs. This poses a number of policy challenges. For instance, the growing number of low-paid workers may increase the cost of welfare-to-work programmes and the relative decline in middle-pay jobs can hinder the chances for the low-paid to move into better-paid jobs, limiting social mobility.
The aim of my research is to advance our knowledge about this process of polarisation, its causes, its implications and its links with other aspects of job quality. This is an exciting research programme with direct relevance for millions of people’s lives whose research findings will help inform policies to deal with the profound changes shaping modern labour markets.”