GET INVOLVED

To discuss how you and your organisation can get more involved with The Work Foundation, please contact our partnership team.

Call 020 7976 3512 or email partnership@theworkfoundation.com

Ian Brinkley

Ian Brinkley

Director, The Work Foundation

Email: ibrinkley@theworkfoundation.com

Telephone: 020 7976 3606


Ian is Director of The Work Foundation, having joined The Work Foundation in June 2006. He was formerly Director of the Knowledge Economy Programme and Director of Socio-Economic Programmes. 

Ian's previous appointments include with the Trades Union Congress (1980–2006), where he was Head of the Economic and Social Affairs Department (2004–2006) and its Chief Economist (1996–2006). Prior to 1980, he worked as a researcher at the University of Kent and the Centre for Environmental Studies.

He was a member of the Low Pay Commission, the body that sets the UK’s national minimum wage (NMW), from 2004–2006.

Ian has worked in a wide range of economic and industrial policy and research areas, including: economic policy; public spending and public service reform; labour markets; energy and the environment; and manufacturing policy. He has produced numerous submissions to government and analytical papers.

He regularly provides economic and labour market commentary, interviews and articles for The Work Foundation.

Ian's recent publications as sole author for The Work Foundation include: Defining the Knowledge Economy (2006); Trading in Ideas and Knowledge (2007); Enterprise and the Knowledge Economy (2008); Manufacturing and the Knowledge Economy (2009); Recession and the Knowledge Economy (2009); How Knowledge is Reshaping the Economic Life of Nations (2009); Innovation, Creativity and Entrepreneurship (2010); and Knowledge Economy Strategy 2020 (2010).

Back to Our People

Related Reports

Making the UK a Global Innovation Hub: How business, finance and an enterprising state can transform the UK
The government must act now to avoid a ‘lost decade of stagnation’. They must adopt a strategy of collaborative, entrepreneurial investment in those areas likely to bring the greatest dividends in growth and jobs.

Prof Birgitte Andersen, Ian Brinkley, Will Hutton
08 September 2011

Related Blogs

1980s-style deregulation of the labour market will not help growth or jobs
The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill outlined in the Queen’s Speech includes some welcome labour market measures, such as support for more family friendly employment.

Ian Brinkley
09 May 2012

Top Ten at Ten: Celebrating The Work Foundation’s first decade
Since its launch in 2002, The Work Foundation has been instrumental in influencing change in all areas of work. With so much happening over the past decade, we wanted to highlight ten of our most impactful programmes of the last ten years:

Ian Brinkley
18 April 2012

Why are women faring worse in today's labour market?
A major focus for comments on the latest labour market figures was the much bigger rise in unemployment for women compared with men. Of the 28,000 increase in unemployed by the ILO measure, 22,000 were accounted for by women, with the female unemployment rate rising to 7.7 per cent.

Ian Brinkley
16 March 2012

Related News

Job figures show return of business confidence but underemployment continues to rise
Commenting on today’s labour market statistics, Ian Brinkley said 'These are surprising but very welcome figures. Claims that further deregulation of the labour market is needed to stimulate job generation look to be unjustified.'

Ian Brinkley
16 May 2012

Budget of wasted opportunity
This was the Budget that could have done much more to set out a growth strategy.

Ian Brinkley
21 March 2012