"The Work Foundation believes the great challenge for Gordon Brown as he forms his new government is to improve the quality of working life. The broadly benign economic climate of the last decade has served to shift the debate about work beyond merely having it. Today the UK enjoys, if not full, then fullish employment. Issues of quantity are less pressing than issues of quality. And today, it is the quality of working life agenda – the bad jobs problem – that most demands government attention. That, though, is for the future (and a forthcoming paper in the autumn). The purpose of this paper is to offer a comprehensive sweep across the last decade of the world of work to establish how the world of work has changed and Labour's role within that change. Where appropriate, especially in the chapter dealing with labour market change, we broaden the period of reference to 1986-2007, in order to help draw contrasts. Now, after more than a decade in power, is an opportune moment to assess whether working life has improved – both ‘objectively' and in terms of the subjective perceptions of workers."

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