Social capital describes the trust, relationships and reciprocal support that connect people to their communities and workplaces. Employment-related measures show substantial differences by labour-market status, education, income and geography. They also show why association should not automatically be read as causation: several estimates below are descriptive or model-based, and some are statistically insignificant.
Contents
- Employment status and neighbourhood trust
- Social networks in job search
- Volunteering and employment outcomes
- Relationships inside the workplace
- Education, income and occupational differences
- Rural, urban and regional community ties
Employment status and neighbourhood trust
The ONS publication Social capital across the UK: 2011 to 2012 recorded a clear employment-status gap in neighbourhood trust. In the UK, 63% of people in employment said they trusted people in their neighbourhood, compared with 43% of unemployed people. The same comparison found that 70% of self-employed people trusted their neighbours, the highest rate among the listed labour-market groups.
The older ONS measures cover more than trust. Only 50% of unemployed people felt that they belonged to their local neighbourhood, while 58% felt that people in their local area were willing to help their neighbours. Among retired people, the corresponding figures were 78% for neighbourhood belonging and 78% for willingness to help. Retired people also reported neighbourhood trust at 79%.
Other labour-market groups sat between these results. Neighbourhood trust was reported by 52% of people with long-term sickness or disabilities and by 52% of full-time students. The figure was 56% for people on maternity leave or looking after the family. Among self-employed people, 65% felt they belonged to their local area and 73% felt local people were willing to help neighbours.
These are survey percentages for 2011 to 2012, not current employment rates or evidence that employment itself caused higher trust. They nevertheless indicate that employment status and local connection were measured together in markedly different ways.
The OECD’s later cross-country evidence points in the same direction for social isolation. In 2022, unemployed people across OECD countries were three times as likely as employed people to feel lonely: 12% versus 4%. Across 35 OECD countries, the pooled average for 2017 to 2023 showed that 14% of unemployed people had no one to count on in times of need, compared with 8% of employed people. Across 23 OECD countries in 2022, 8% of unemployed people were dissatisfied with their personal relationships, compared with 3% of employed people. These descriptive comparisons do not establish whether unemployment, weaker networks or other factors came first. Source: Social Connections and Loneliness in OECD Countries.
Social networks in job search
Jobseekers do not rely only on formal applications. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, in the 2025 annual average, 23.7% of unemployed jobseekers contacted friends or relatives as an active job-search method. This measure comes from Unemployed jobseekers by sex, reason for unemployment, and active job search methods used.
The reason for unemployment mattered. Among job losers and people completing temporary jobs, 27.9% contacted friends or relatives. The share was 20.5% among job leavers, 21.0% among reentrants and 20.7% among new entrants to the labour market.
There was also a sex difference in the overall measure: 25.1% of unemployed U.S. men contacted friends or relatives, compared with 22.0% of unemployed U.S. women. Among men who were job losers or had completed temporary jobs, the figure was 28.4%; among women in that group, it was 27.3%.
| U.S. unemployed jobseeker group | Contacted friends or relatives | Period |
|---|---|---|
| All unemployed jobseekers | 23.7% | 2025 annual average |
| Job losers or completed temporary jobs | 27.9% | 2025 annual average |
| Job leavers | 20.5% | 2025 annual average |
| Reentrants | 21.0% | 2025 annual average |
| New entrants | 20.7% | 2025 annual average |
Earlier evidence from Great Britain measured the support people believed they needed for goals including job aspirations and education. In 2012, 48% of adults agreed that they needed a core group of people who could inspire, mentor, confide in or support them. In the same year, 76% reported at least one friend who inspired them and 71% reported at least one friend who would mentor or guide them. Source: Measuring national well-being: Our relationships.
Networks can also shape recruitment at senior levels. In a study of directors of large listed U.S. companies covering 2004 to 2008, connected new directors were 14% more likely to be referred by current board members with whom they shared employment history. The source describes this evidence in Social networks and job referrals in recruitment. This is a recruitment-referral association for a specific population, not an estimate for all workers.
Volunteering and employment outcomes
The report Estimating the economic and social value of volunteering used longitudinal Understanding Society analysis. Its estimates describe associations between volunteering and later employment, with a one-period lag unless stated otherwise.
For the overall sample, volunteering at least once in the previous 12 months was associated with a 0.9% increase in the probability of paid employment in the following period, but that estimate was not statistically significant. For people aged 16 to 25, the same volunteering measure was associated with a statistically significant 9.1% increase. Weekly volunteering for this age group was associated with a statistically significant 17.1% increase in the probability of employment in the following period.
The pattern differed for older participants. For people aged 46 to 65, volunteering at least once in the previous year was associated with a 2.6% decrease in employment probability, but the estimate was not statistically significant. Weekly volunteering was associated with a statistically significant 7.8% decrease in the probability of paid employment. The report therefore does not support a single employment effect that applies across ages.
Longer lags produced positive associations in the analysis: volunteering was associated with a statistically significant 6.2% increase in employment probability after two years and a statistically significant 3.4% increase after three years. These are model-based estimates, not uniformly causal effects.
The pay estimates were mixed. Volunteering at least once in the previous 12 months was associated with 1.2% lower hourly pay in the following period, while weekly volunteering was associated with 2.8% lower hourly pay. For 16- to 25-year-olds, volunteering in the previous 12 months was associated with 5.1% lower hourly pay. For 26- to 45-year-olds, volunteering less than once a week was associated with 1.9% higher hourly pay, while weekly volunteering was associated with 2.1% lower hourly pay. The negative weekly-volunteering association remained statistically significant at 2.1% after two years and 2.6% after three years.
Hours also varied. People volunteering at least once in the previous 12 months worked 0.130 fewer paid hours per week on average. For 16- to 25-year-olds, the association was 0.595 additional paid-work hours per week; for 26- to 45-year-olds, 0.123 fewer hours; and for 46- to 65-year-olds, 0.150 fewer hours.
Relationships inside the workplace
The ONS’s Measuring national well-being: Our relationships reported workplace and family contact measures from a 2014 report using 2011 workplace-survey evidence. Among UK full-time workers, 62% reported daily contact with work colleagues and 44% reported daily contact with their boss. Daily contact with children was reported by 64%, while 26% of full-time workers who had a relationship with their mother reported daily contact with her.
Closeness at work was unevenly distributed. In the UK, 58% of people at work had at least one close friend at work, 22% had three or more close friends at work, and 42% did not count any colleagues as close friends. These categories describe workplace relationships, not a measure of job performance or retention.
The 2011 UK Workplace Employment Relations Survey also showed a large manager-employee perception gap. Managers rated their relationships with employees as good or very good in 96% of cases. Employees rated their relationship with managers as good or very good in 64% of cases, while 13% rated it poor or very poor.
Education, income and occupational differences
The OECD evidence shows that social connection is patterned by education and income as well as employment status. Across 23 OECD countries in 2022, 17% of people with below-upper-secondary education saw friends daily, compared with 8% of people with tertiary education. At the other end of the contact scale, 10% of people with below-upper-secondary education never met friends in person, compared with 3% of tertiary-educated people. Source: Social Connections and Loneliness in OECD Countries.
Income differences were especially large. Across OECD countries with available data, 13% of people in the bottom income quintile reported loneliness, compared with 2% in the top quintile. Fourteen percent of people in the bottom quintile had no one to count on in times of need, versus 7% in the top quintile. Dissatisfaction with personal relationships was reported by 8% in the bottom quintile and 3% in the top quintile.
The UK ONS figures also distinguish occupations. In 2011 to 2012, 73% of people in higher managerial occupations trusted people in their neighbourhood, compared with 54% in routine occupations. The respective shares who felt local people were willing to help neighbours were 75% and 65%. Neighbourhood belonging was reported by 61% of people in higher managerial occupations and 59% in routine occupations.
Rural, urban and regional community ties
Community connections were generally stronger in rural areas in the ONS bulletin Social capital in the UK: April 2020 to March 2021. In England during 2020 to 2021, 81.8% of rural residents talked regularly with neighbours, compared with 72.4% of urban residents. Borrowing things or exchanging favours with neighbours was reported by 44.1% of rural residents and 35.6% of urban residents.
Some measures covered Great Britain during the first pandemic period. Between May and July 2020, 63.8% of rural residents checked on neighbours who might need help, compared with 53.2% of urban residents. Between May and August 2020, 79.3% of rural residents felt they could rely on their local community for support, compared with 67.4% of urban residents. The collection periods and geographies differ, so these percentages should not be combined into a single rural-urban trend.
The earlier 2011 to 2012 ONS comparison found regional differences in neighbourhood belonging: 73% of Northern Ireland residents, 69% of Scottish residents and 59% of London residents reported belonging to their neighbourhood. It also found that 78% of rural UK residents trusted people in their neighbourhood, compared with 61% of urban residents.
Together, these measures show several dimensions of employment-related social capital: access to people who can help with a job search, trust in the local area, workplace relationships and practical reciprocity. Their periods, populations and definitions differ, so the statistics are best read as separate indicators rather than as one composite employment index.