Podcast Summary: "Are jobs getting better?"

Podcast: LSE: Public lectures and events
Date: February 3, 2026
Host: Maya Narad (LSE IQ team)
Guests: Kirsten Sainbruch (LSE International Inequalities Institute), Raj Chaudhry (Professor of Organizational Behavior, LSE Department of Management), Fabien Cortomier (Chief Economist, Google)

Episode Overview

This episode of LSE IQ asks "Are jobs getting better?" and explores the evolving landscape of work. The discussion spans job quality versus job quantity, the transformative power of AI and new technologies, the rise of ‘work from anywhere’ models, and critical policy challenges. Experts probe whether increases in flexibility, technological advancement, and minimum wage translate to genuine improvements in working lives—or simply mask deeper issues of insecurity, inequality, and sustainability.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The State of Job Quality

• Persistent Poor Job Quality

  • Kirsten Sainbruch highlights that 1 in 4 UK workers—and 1 in 3 in London—are in "poor quality jobs," marked by low wages, precarious contracts, unstable hours, and underemployment.
  • Quote: “These are workers who have poor employment conditions, often low wages, precarious contracts, unstable jobs, work too many hours or work too few hours...” (Kirsten Sainbruch, 00:01)

• Job Quantity vs. Quality

  • There's a common focus on employment rates, while Sainbruch argues that the focus should be on job quality and individual capability.
  • Policymakers lump very different job experiences together under “low wage” without considering stability, benefits, or upward mobility (13:54–15:21).

The ‘Work from Anywhere’ Revolution

• Pre-pandemic Shift Accelerated

  • Raj Chaudhry characterizes the shift in work geography as underway before COVID-19, with the pandemic accelerating adoption (02:02).
  • Quote: “The pandemic acted as...an event that precipitated many other companies to embrace remote and distributed work practices...” (Raj Chaudhry, 02:02)

• Benefits for Workers and Employers

  • Workers gain the ability to move to more affordable areas, live closer to family, and solve "dual career" problems—especially supporting women’s careers (02:45–04:10).
  • Employers can now fish for talent globally and see productivity boosts, but Chaudhry stresses the value of hybrid approaches mixing in-person and remote teamwork (04:30–05:31).
  • Quote: “Work from anywhere is a win win. It’s good for individual workers and it’s good for companies.” (Raj Chaudhry, 02:02)

• Rethinking Office Time

  • In-person days should be reserved for team collaboration, mentoring, and trust-building, not solo tasks or Zoom calls at the office (05:50–06:33).

• Implications for the Public Sector & New Technology

  • Flexibility benefits public sector jobs, and tools like digital twins allow remote monitoring of physical sites, further dissolving the boundaries between office and “site” for roles like doctors and factory workers (06:46–07:38).

AI as a General-Purpose Technology

• Historic Scale of Transformation

  • Fabien Cortomier draws parallels between AI and epochal technologies like electrification and the steam engine (08:19).
  • Quote: “This is the most profound shift that I’ve come across in my professional career as an economist...AI is also what you might call an invention of a method of invention.” (Fabien Cortomier, 08:19)

• Case Study: AlphaFold

  • AI’s impact isn’t just automation but enabling breakthroughs—e.g., AlphaFold predicted 200 million protein structures, accelerating life sciences research globally (08:19–10:28).

• Productivity and Well-Being

  • Workers save time (average 122 hours/year), experience improved creativity, and in some environments (like call centers) AI reduces stress and improves job satisfaction (10:44–11:33).

• Misconceptions and Realities

  • The fear of AI “taking all jobs” is overblown; technology automates tasks, not jobs. Historically, only rare jobs (elevator operator) have been fully automated away (11:42–13:31).
  • AI isn’t just a white-collar affair; it’s lowering analysis costs across all sectors, even in blue-collar trades.

Human Challenges: Care, Contracts, and Capability

• Skills, Care Work, and Gendered Job Choices

  • Many skilled workers—especially women with caregiving responsibilities—are forced into lower-quality, flexible contracts due to lack of support (15:21–15:58).
  • Flexibility often comes at the expense of security, stability, and career development.

• Economic and Social Impacts of Precarity

  • Sainbruch warns of a “tipping point” where too many low-quality jobs burden social safety nets and strain taxpayer resources (16:21).
  • Real-life stories reveal the exhaustion and hardship faced by parents (often single mothers) balancing low-quality work and care duties (17:07–18:20).
  • Quote: “The level of stress that that causes in families is, in my view, in the long term, unsustainable...” (Kirsten Sainbruch, 17:07)

• Retraining Gaps and Policy Shortcomings

  • UK safety nets are too reactive and insufficient for mid-career retraining. By contrast, Germany subsidizes wages during apprenticeships, easing transition (18:36–20:05).

• Need for Proactive, Layered Support

  • Sainbruch envisions proactive “employment insurance” supporting adaptation and upskilling before workers fall into unemployment (20:16–21:01).
  • Current systems push workers into any available job, regardless of quality.

Entry-Level and Young Workers: Are They at Risk?

• AI and Entry-Level Jobs

  • A Stanford study claims AI is causing early-career job losses in AI-exposed industries (13% decline), but Cortomier argues this reflects macroeconomic shocks (like rising interest rates), not AI displacement (21:34–23:54).
  • Quote: “These guys are looking at employment numbers, whereas if you look at job postings, job postings actually started to shift six months ahead of the curve...the finding...is actually linked to macro events.” (Fabien Cortomier, 21:34)

• Who Benefits from New Technology?

  • Historically, younger workers exploit new tech best, while older cohorts struggle with adaptation (24:12).
  • Advice: “Become masters of AI. Make sure that you leverage it to your benefit and to develop experience, develop judgment…lean into those human qualities that are irreplaceable.” (Fabien Cortomier, 24:31)

What Makes a 'Better' Job?

• Solving the Geography Trap
  • Chowdhury advocates using work-from-anywhere to finally beat the old compromise between job and location, boosting life quality and allowing people to live where suits them and their families (25:08–25:57).
  • Quote: “We can turn geography into our friend, not our foe.” (Raj Chaudhry, 25:08)

Are Jobs Actually Getting Better? (Final Analysis)

Fabien Cortomier (Google)

• Jobs are improving in empowerment, expert work, less drudgery, and more creativity.
• The labor market now faces a worker shortage and will need productivity gains—AI offers promise if rolled out responsibly and individuals upskill rapidly (26:05).

Kirsten Sainbruch (LSE)

• Positive trends: Wage growth (due mainly to minimum wage increases), improved pension access, and gradual decline in average working hours.
• Negative trends: More precarious contracts, declining job stability, and new risks from surveillance technologies and management devices (e.g., wearable trackers in warehouses).
• Strong regulation and institutional adaptation are needed to ensure growth translates into genuine well-being and security for workers and families (26:50–29:44).
• Quote: “There’s a social component or a social fallout of labour markets that we don’t often take into account…Growth is certainly helpful, but it’s not in and of itself necessarily enough. Much depends on the regulation, on the institutions that this growth occurs in.” (Kirsten Sainbruch, 29:24)

Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote / Moment | |-----------|--------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:01 | Kirsten Sainbruch | "In the UK we have one in four workers who are in what I would consider to be a poor quality job..."| | 02:02 | Raj Chaudhry | "I see Work from Anywhere as a win win. It's good for individual workers and it's good for companies."| | 08:19 | Fabien Cortomier | "This is the most profound shift that I've come across in my professional career as an economist..."| | 13:54 | Kirsten Sainbruch | "Saying okay, they're low income earners, that isn't going to help us. So one of those workers is going to be the most deprived and one of them is going to be the least deprived..."| | 17:07 | Kirsten Sainbruch | "The level of stress that that causes in families is, in my view, in the long term, unsustainable." | | 24:31 | Fabien Cortomier | "Become masters of AI. Make sure that you leverage it to your benefit...lean into those human qualities that are irreplaceable."| | 25:08 | Raj Chaudhry | "We can turn geography into our friend, not our foe." | | 26:50 | Kirsten Sainbruch | "What’s deteriorated, however, is the stability of jobs, the types of contracts, the number of people working in precarious conditions..."| | 29:24 | Kirsten Sainbruch | "...Much depends on the regulation, on the institutions that this growth occurs in." |

Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:01 — Job quality crisis in the UK (Sainbruch)
• 02:02 — Work from anywhere: benefits & challenges (Chaudhry)
• 08:19 — AI as general-purpose technology & AlphaFold (Cortomier)
• 13:54 — Poverty, precarity, and policy (Sainbruch)
• 17:07 — Real-life stories of workers (Sainbruch)
• 18:36 — Policy solutions: retraining and safety nets (Sainbruch)
• 21:34 — Are entry-level workers losing out to AI? (Cortomier)
• 24:31 — Advice to young people: become masters of AI (Cortomier)
• 25:08 — What makes a job ‘better’ for individuals (Chaudhry)
• 26:50 — Big-picture trends and risks (Sainbruch)

Final Thoughts

Despite technological advancements and promising productivity gains, millions remain in low-quality, precarious work, especially in the UK. While "work from anywhere" and AI offer freedom and creativity, policy, support systems, and regulation remain essential to avoid deepening inequalities. For jobs to truly “get better,” success must be measured by quality, inclusivity, and long-term security—not just wage averages or tech adoption rates.