The overarching goal of the Review is to shape a future of better work that advances people’s welfare and social wellbeing more widely. The work of the Review will encompass six interlinked research themes:

1. Labour markets

2. Firms

3. Place and inequalities

4. Health and wellbeing

5. Public institutions

6. Worker skills and resilience

Our approach

Framing this Review is Pissarides’ theory of labour market frictions. Building on this seminal work, we have designed a new, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding how, and to what extent workers are exposed to ‘frictions’ associated with technological disruption. These may be related to how skills requirements are rapidly changing; the location of work is shifting and uncertainty about the use and impacts of technology.

Frictions are manifested along three dimensions:

1. Skills friction, caused when skills requirements rapidly change

2. Information friction, resulting from uncertainty about who will be affected and how

3. Geographic friction, as local jobs are shed, and new work is located elsewhere.

Each friction has associated economic and health consequences for affected groups. We hypothesise that the extent of each friction will be unequally distributed between demographic groups and regions.

The Review will use design-thinking techniques to enable us to seek out and listen to diverse voices and perspectives.

The main objectives of the research are to:

1. Understand the history and trajectories of technological transformation across the UK.

2. Understand the impacts of automation on work and wellbeing across the UK.

3. Analyse the comparative work and wellbeing outcomes for groups living in labour markets characterised by different levels of disruption and automation risk.

4. Understand the factors that influence the nature and pace of the adoption of automation technologies post COVID-19.

5. Design new policies and strategies to address disadvantages and ameliorate risks.

Key activities of the Review will include:

• The first national Disruption Index to map and track technological disruption across the UK.

• A firm-level survey to explore the way managerial philosophies shape approaches to the introduction of automation technologies.          

• A deep dive into work challenges and opportunities into eight locations in England, Wales and Scotland.

The Review seeks to create impact across policy, practice and research with the development and sharing of new methods for measuring and understanding labour market change and its impact in the UK.