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Sarah O'Connor

Employment columnist

Sarah O'Connor is a columnist, reporter and associate editor at the Financial Times. She writes a weekly column focused on the world of work, as well as longer reported articles.

She joined the FT in 2007 and has covered the US economy from Washington DC, the UK economy from London and the financial crisis from Iceland.

Email Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnor_  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Sarah O'Connor @sarahoconnor_  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Tuesday, 17 May, 2022
    UK employment
    Beware the promise of salary advance schemes

    Such products look increasingly attractive to some employees as the cost of living crisis bites

  • Tuesday, 10 May, 2022
    New Zealand
    New Zealand’s jobs law will cause ripples beyond its shores

    Introducing fair pay agreements would reverse 30 years of labour market deregulation

  • Tuesday, 3 May, 2022
    UK employment
    Rot festers in the lower depths of the British labour market

    Poor regulation of umbrella companies is bad for workers, taxpayers and decent businesses alike

  • Tuesday, 26 April, 2022
    Pension automatic enrolment
    When a pensions policy is a resounding success, we should say so

    There remains more to do but automatic enrolment has had a transformational effect

  • Tuesday, 12 April, 2022
    UK employment
    Why the middle-class capture of apprenticeship matters

    Reforms have led to a sharp fall in England in younger apprentices from poorer areas

  • Tuesday, 5 April, 2022
    Working It podcast29 min listen
    Is this the end of work as we know it?

    Why millions are quitting their jobs, working less, or declaring themselves anti-work

  • Tuesday, 5 April, 2022
    Amazon.com
    Union victory for Amazon warehouse could change US labour movement

    Grassroots Staten Island win shows the power of organising from the bottom up

  • Tuesday, 29 March, 2022
    UK employment
    The P&O debacle shows that UK labour law needs an overhaul

    There are too many loopholes and grey areas that unscrupulous employers can exploit

  • Tuesday, 22 March, 2022
    Future of work
    A four-day week might benefit employers as well

    Experiments have shown that workers’ hours can be cut without a corresponding drop in output

  • Thursday, 17 March, 2022
    FT Magazine
    How did a vast Amazon warehouse change life in a former mining town?

    Ten years after her groundbreaking investigation into the retail giant, Sarah O’Connor returns to Rugeley to find out what’s changed

  • Tuesday, 15 March, 2022
    War in Ukraine
    Europe has done the right thing by allowing Ukrainian refugees to work

    But access to employment must be underpinned by services to help new arrivals to support themselves

  • Thursday, 3 March, 2022
    FT CollectionsClaudia Goldin
    Claudia Goldin: ‘Greedy work has been made less greedy’

    The pandemic has helped facilitate flexible working, which might make top jobs more compatible with family life

  • Tuesday, 1 March, 2022
    Coronavirus economic impact
    Better UK sick pay will help us live with Covid

    Britain lags behind countries like Germany in the help it gives to workers who fall ill

  • Tuesday, 22 February, 2022
    Artificial intelligence
    Never mind Big Tech — ‘little tech’ can be dangerous at work too

    ‘Algorithmic management’ is spreading beyond gig platforms and logistics warehouses to other sectors

  • Tuesday, 15 February, 2022
    UK immigration
    Keeping asylum seekers in limbo is bad for everyone

    ‘Human capital’ is damaged when people are shut out of labour markets and forced to sit idle

  • Tuesday, 8 February, 2022
    UK employment
    In unequal Britain, why aren’t there more Dick Whittingtons?

    The government’s ambition to spread highly-skilled jobs more evenly around the country is a good one

  • Monday, 31 January, 2022
    UK employment
    UK plan shows how not to deal with labour shortages

    The issue isn’t that the unemployed are too picky — it’s that many have left the jobs market altogether

  • Tuesday, 11 January, 2022
    Legal services
    Don’t roll your eyes when lawyers complain about overwork

    Listening to the concerns of people at the top can inform the debate over how to improve jobs at the bottom

  • Wednesday, 29 December, 2021
    UK employment
    A decent boss can make the world of difference at work

    Job satisfaction takes many forms but beware the demoralising effects of impersonal systems for evaluating employees

  • Tuesday, 21 December, 2021
    FT Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign
    Against the odds: the struggles of migrants to build a business

    The FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign: Despite many obstacles, new arrivals have a record of entrepreneurship

  • Monday, 20 December, 2021
    Flexible working
    It’s not only working mothers who benefit from flexible jobs

    Ruling out so many potential candidates at a time of staff shortages is irrational

  • Monday, 6 December, 2021
    UK government spending
    What a lost decade of education spending means for the economy

    The government has big ambitions but is only halfheartedly matching them with its wallet

  • Tuesday, 30 November, 2021
    Artificial intelligence
    AI is making applying for jobs even more miserable

    Asynchronous video interviews are bad news for both employers and would-be employees

  • Tuesday, 23 November, 2021
    US employment
    Corporate America’s parallel justice system is a recipe for unfairness

    Mandatory arbitration clauses deprive workers of their day in court when their rights are breached

  • Tuesday, 9 November, 2021
    Retirement
    Covid retirees show work-from-home revolution has not benefited everyone

    Older people were staying in the labour market for longer — until the pandemic hit

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