A summary of a discussion that took place at the UK Futures group, hosted by BT on Saturday 21 September 1996. There was general consensus that there are problems. Some people are overworked. Some people work for very low wages which the state subsidised through family credits etc.
Many people have no paid employment.
It was asserted that real average wages have been reducing for 20 years and that the gap between high earners and the rest was getting still wider - polarisation of earnings. At one level this question appears to be a managerial one. If we define what we mean in operational terms then we can do something about it . Structured employment such as 9-5 is a relatively new phenomenon, quite different from the agrarian era. Employment certainly means more than work - whole realms of social status and self image are bounded in employment.