Listen Up - Individual Experiences Of Work, Consumption And Society

18th May 2022

An interesting report from the Resolution Foundation examines people's views on the economy.

What economic strategy should the UK pursue over the next decade, in order both to address long-standing problems in the country (stagnating living standards and high inequality) and to navigate ongoing change (Brexit, net zero transition and a post-pandemic world)?

The Economy 2030 Inquiry is a two-year collaboration between the Resolution Foundation and the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics investigating this very question. Drawing on evidence about how people, places and firms flourish, the Inquiry aims to provide a roadmap for a more productive and equitable UK in 2020s and beyond.

This report is unlike the majority of research produced by the Inquiry to date, however, in that it is based on the voices of 56 participants from six semi-structured focus groups we held in March 2022. We created this space in the Inquiry to listen to people from all walks of life voice their experience of the economy for a range of reasons.

This exercise allowed us to test if what we have found in the Inquiry so far truly reflects people's lives, and to probe motivation, explore constraints and understand how people engage with, and experience, the world. Most importantly, these voices are key in helping us decide not just the objectives for a new economic strategy, but also which routes to change are desirable and feasible.

This, then, is what we heard.
*Work conditions matter to workers alongside pay
*Higher earners are wary of switching jobs, but for lower earners, change looks largely like more of the same
*Consumer choice is important, not least to keep prices down
*People want to effect change when they spend - but need government to regulate on their behalf
*Unpaid work often absorbs a large part of people's time, but it is highly valued
*Participation in society requires a minimum income and good health.

Read the findings under the above headings in the full report

Read the full report HERE

Lessons for a new economic strategy
The UK's shared prosperity model is broken: growth is low and and inequality is high. . We need a new economic strategy, but unless this is attuned to people’s lives and what they truly value, it risks solving the wrong problems or setting off in directions that are unlikely to succeed. Strikingly, no participant in our research felt they had the ability to affect economic change - economic change is currently done to people rather than by or with people. So, what can our focus groups tell us about how the country needs to change?

Anxiety about the cost of living crisis was widespread across our groups. There was a growing sense of economic insecurity even from those higher up the income scale, indicating that protecting and improving living standards is an increasingly urgent task. But, clearly, sustained growth in living standards cannot be achieved without improvements in productivity, so how is that to be achieved? Our focus group point to some strategies. Further intensification of work for lower earners is unlikely to produce much in the way of gains (a finding consistent with our previous work), for example, but more flexible work and better management practices very well might.

A more productive economy also requires a dynamic labour market, but we found real impediments to workers’ ability to grow and change jobs. For many lower-skilled workers, change often looked just like more of the same. This suggests that clearer routes for progression and training are needed to help people escape often unfulfilling jobs. In contrast, higher-skilled workers need more support to take a leap, such as better social insurance to catch them if they fall, or improved and standardised labour market conditions around flexible work.

When it came to the cost of living, competition is clearly key to keeping prices down, but lower-income families also need protection against rapid price increases. Moreover, if consumer behaviour has to change in the future – for example, to reach our net zero goals – our focus groups suggest this can only be achieved through regulation or price signals rather than expecting consumers or firms to make complex ethical choices themselves.

A flourishing economy underpins the things that are important in people’s lives: providing for their children, for example, or a thriving local community. (We will be examining people’s views on their places in more depth in forthcoming research). But our focus groups showed clearly that very low incomes and poor health are the biggest barriers to full participation in society. As we look to the future, we need to find a fair and sustainable way to fund a stronger benefit system and better public services.

Developing an economic model to achieve all these and other aims is not without its challenges. If we want better-paid and better-quality jobs, we will need businesses that are willing and able to provide them. It may prove hard to reconcile consumers’ desire for both the choice of online shopping and a vibrant local high street. And providing more social protection and better services – for example, more subsidised childcare or improved mental health provision – has to be paid for somehow.

This report is the first providing us with deep insight into people’s experience of the economy. In the next phase of the Economy 2030 Inquiry we will work once again with members of the public to explore these and other trade-offs further, and develop policies that underpin shared prosperity.

For now, though, we give the last word to one of our participants.

"The system needs to change and the people like us ... who’ve gone through it, our views are so important to try and make that change." - Participant living on a very low income, Sunderland