Four million people in the UK are currently trapped in insecure, underpaid, or exploitative work. One in eight of the workforce. That’s a national emergency, and a crisis hiding in plain sight.
Since 2011, the ranks of people in what researchers define as “non-decent work” have expanded by 800,000. Zero-hours contracts. Dubious self-employment. Wages too low to meet basic living costs. For too many people, work isn’t paying.

The CDI believes this must change and that career development professionals are central to the solution.

“Decent Work” - what it actually means
“Decent Work” is not a fluffy aspiration. It has a precise definition, enshrined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 8 and set out by the International Labour Organisation: fair pay, job security, safe conditions, the right to organise, and the opportunity to develop. The UK Government, following the Taylor Review in 2017, adopted the near-identical concept of “Good Work” - and has now legislated for it, comprehensively, through the Employment Rights Act 2025.
This is the moment. The political will exists. The legislation is in place. The question is: who will help millions of workers, and the young people about to enter the workforce, navigate this new landscape?

A generation already losing faith
The challenge of decent work is not only about those already in the workforce. Millions of young people are approaching a labour market that may fail them in the same ways - underpaid, insecure, and without the conditions to thrive.

Research published in 2025 found that 46.4% of 15-year-olds in the UK are uncertain about their career options - up from 24.6% in 2018. We have nearly halved young people’s confidence in their career futures in seven years. The UK now ranks among the worst in the world on this measure, out of 80 countries surveyed.

Aspirations are also dangerously narrow. Half of young people are targeting just 10 high-status professions. At the same time, automation and AI are putting around 28% of OECD jobs at high risk of displacement. The mismatch between aspiration and opportunity could not be more acute.
Career development professionals are well placed to support young people through this, but only if they are given the access, resource and recognition to do so.

What career professionals already do, and can do more of...
Research led by CDI researcher Stephen Plimmer makes it clear that career guidance is, at its best, a social justice intervention and a career management skills intervention. It equips workers and young people with the tools to navigate structural barriers rather than internalise them as personal failings. It builds the career adaptability, resilience and self-knowledge needed in a labour market being reshaped by technology at pace. And it integrates mental health awareness where the toll of precarious work has already been taken.

Many career professionals are already doing this. Helping clients understand what they should expect from employers, and that those who fall short are not meeting their legal and ethical obligations. And working with educators and policymakers to create the conditions where decent work is the rule, not the exception. Professional career development education gives practitioners the conceptual tools to do exactly this: to recognise that meaningful, decent work is not solely an individual achievement, but a product of social, economic and political conditions that career support can engage with head-on.

This is our moment
The Employment Rights Act 2025 is a positive step towards decent work. The Get Britain Working agenda is a platform. Career development is one of the critical, (and often under-appreciated), levers in achieving this. Whereas government can legislate against poor employer behaviours, career development professionals can support the current and next generation of the workforce to find and progress into decent work .

At the CDI, we are committed to ensuring that career development professionals have the knowledge, frameworks and voice to make decent work not just an aspiration, but a lived reality. For workers, for young people, and for everyone.

The role of career development in achieving decent work is clear. The real question is whether with the creation of the new Jobs and Careers Service, whether the government will capitalise on the opportunity to make this crucial service available to all adults and young people, so they can fulfil their potential and aspirations.