1.3 MILLION PEOPLE STILL WANT MORE WORK THAN THEY CAN FIND. ARE YOU ONE OF THEM?
Only one in every 40 new jobs created since the recession is for a full-time employee – and many workers classed as ‘self-employed’ are only just scratching a living, according to new figures released today.
New figures from the TUC claim that 1.3 million people in the UK – including graduates and other young workers – are working fewer hours than they would like to. Many are working part-time but would prefer full-time jobs, while others have been forced to become self-employed because they can’t find employment with an organisation.
The TUC also raised questions about the ‘story’ being told about the high levels of self-employment, claiming that in many cases it meant insecure, low paid job. In other cases, workers who should be classed as employees were being asked to stay ‘self-employed’ and work on a contract basis. This ‘false’ self-employment works out as cheaper for their employers, who save on National Insurance and do not have to pay holiday or sick pay.
The analysis shows that the share of full-time employee jobs was 64 per cent in 2008 and fell to 62 per cent in 2014. This is equivalent to a shortfall of 669,000 full-time employees.
Just one in every forty of the net jobs added to the economy between 2008 and 2014 has been a full-time employee job. Over the same period 24 in every 40 net jobs added have been self-employed, and 26 in every 40 have been part-time.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:
“While more people are in work there are still far too few full-time employee jobs for everyone who wants one. It means many working families are on substantially lower incomes as they can only find reduced hours jobs or low-paid self-employment.
“The Chancellor has said he wants full employment, but that should mean full-time jobs for everyone who wants them. At the moment the economy is still not creating enough full-time employee jobs to meet demand.”
The TUC says it recognises that part-time and self-employment are both important options for many people. However, despite recent economic growth the number of part-time employees who say they want full-time hours is still twice what it was before the recession at 1.3 million people.
The TUC believes that the rise in self-employment is at least in part a result of people who are unable to find employee jobs being forced into false self-employment — an exploitation of workers used by some companies to evade taxes and avoid respecting employment rights and entitlements such as holiday pay, sick pay and pensions.
Graduate Fog has been concerned for some time about the reality of the new, so-called ‘flexible’ economy, and we question who the real winners and losers are. Part-time jobs and self-employment can sound great on paper. But are people really enjoying a better work-life balance? Are we really a nation of thriving freelancers and entrepreneurs? Or are desperate job-seekers turning to these alternatives because it’s the only work they can get?
*WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THESE NEW FIGURES?
Are you working fewer hours than you’d like to be? What do you make of the new ‘flexible’ economy? Does it work for you? Who are the winners – and who are the losers?
They think dealing with the needs of old people and pensioners is bad now. What’s going to happen in the future when nobody’s earned enough to pay into one, have any savings or even enough to make regular national insurance payments for the state one?
@JC The housing benefit bill is going to be astronomical.
As for only one in 40 new jobs being full time- how can that be when the Tories claim the economy is booming?! Cough, cough, cough…… think I’m having a coughing fit!
@A4e Sucks. Oh, silly me. Forgot to also mention all these defaulted student loans that the taxpayer will foot the bill for. Should be free in the first place. Mine currently stands at £28,000 after graduating 7 years ago. The interest has been more than any repayments I have ever made. So when odious millionaire tory trolls like Ester McVey say graduates should be ‘greatful’ for any basic job on the national minimum wage, she and other tax payers are happy to foot the bill for the student loans we will never pay back then??
The new jobs being created tend to be of a very poor quality, paying pocket-money if that and in areas that are not in demand.
Has anyone been to a job club? I saw one advertised, albeit in a block of flats on a rough estate. I find forums like this and places like the job centre a waste of time because there is no one to talk to face to face and it all becomes very negative.
What concerns me is when jobs that would normally have been full time and permanent are being replaced by zero hours. I saw this happen in my own workplace, I was taken on as a full time permanent staff member but the next load of recruits were zero hours.