Under-employment crisis: Two million in jobs that don't even pay the bills
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UPDATED:
07:37 GMT, 17 May 2012
Britain is in the grip of an ‘under-employment’ crisis with record numbers forced to do jobs that pay them less than they need.
Official figures, published yesterday, show there are 2.03million people who say they are having to accept either temporary or part-time work because they cannot find a permanent or full-time job.
This total – the largest number since records began – highlights the crisis facing workers who can only get badly paid work but need more money.
Figures show there are 2.03million people who are having to accept temporary or part-time work because they cannot find a permanent or full-time job
The problem is growing fast. Over the last year, around 780 people a day have been caught in the trap of what economists call ‘under-employment’.
Since the recession began at the beginning of 2008, the number of ‘forced’ part-time workers, who would prefer to be full-time, has more than doubled.
In 2008, there were only 690,000. Today there are 1.4million, a figure which has jumped by a third over the last two years.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said the collapse in wages is terrible news for people in work
Part-time jobs have increased to an all-time high of 7.99million, up 118,000 during the three months between January and March, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
But the number of full-time workers is dropping, down 13,000 to 21.2million.
Millions of other workers are content to be working part-time or on a temporary basis, but economists raised their fears about those are who are forced into it.
Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, warned of ‘a growing army of under-employed odd jobbers’.
Ian Brinkley, a director of The Work Foundation, said: ‘Under-employment is emerging as a significant problem in the UK labour market.’
Families are under pressure from rising household bills, frozen child benefit, a clampdown on tax credits and the higher VAT rate of 20 per cent.
And the pay squeeze on workers, which has continued for three years, is getting worse. ONS figures showed that average weekly earnings rose by only 0.1 per cent in March, far below the inflation rate, currently 3.5 per cent.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said: ‘The collapse in wages is terrible news for people in work and threatens our chances of economic recovery.’
Meanwhile, the figures show that the jobs which are being created continue to be handed to foreigners, rather than British workers. Between January and March, the number of UK-born workers dropped by 8,000 – but the number of foreign-born workers jumped by 16,000.