institute for employment studies

about IES

A short history of IES

The Institute was formed in the late 1960s by a group of industrialists and individuals who saw the need for an independent, national centre of excellence to research and disseminate best practice in manpower planning, and labour market issues.

The group was led by Sir Peter Allen (then Deputy Chairman of ICI) and Lord (Willis) Jackson of Burnley under its original name, the Institute of Manpower Studies (IMS). Some twenty companies plus the then Civil Service Department underwrote the Institute’s existence for the first five years. Since then it has become self-funding, carrying out research and applied consultancy, and has an active publishing and dissemination programme.

The Institute is entirely independent and apolitical; it is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee. The Institute was located on the University of Sussex campus, which was developing a ‘science park’ environment for research institutes, where it continues to maintain its offices, though it has never been part of, or directly sponsored by, the University of Sussex.

Its current Director, Nigel Meager, was appointed in 2004, having joined the Institute in 1984.

In 1994 the Institute celebrated its 25th anniversary and changed its name to the Institute for Employment Studies to better reflect the wider range of subject matter now addressed.

The Institute has a turnover of over £5m. The majority of its funding comes via commissioned project work, derived from the private and the public sectors, from research councils and foundations in the UK and abroad.