Why the jobs crisis is far worse than headline figures


by Guest    
9:02 am - May 17th 2012

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contribution by Anjum Klair

TUC analysis published yesterday, using official figures, shows that the number of men doing part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work has more than doubled to nearly 600,000 between December 2007 and December 2011.

The number of under-employed women has increased by 74% to 780,000, bringing the total number of people in involuntary part-time work to a record 1.38 million.

The proportion of women working part-time that don’t want a full-time job, often because of family and caring responsibilities, has also been falling. This shows that the recent rise in part-time employment has mainly come about through necessity rather than choice.

Number of people doing part-time work because couldn’t find full-time jobs, Q4 2011


(Quarterly Labour Force Survey, October – December, 2011)

Percentage increases in involuntary part-time work, Q4 2007–Q4 2011

(Quarterly Labour Force Survey, October – December, 2007 & 2011)

(Download the full analysis)

While we had good news last month that overall unemployment fell so too did the number of people in full-time work.

While part-time or temporary jobs may be better than no work at all, people are having to take huge salary sacrifices, reduce their hours and trade down their skills to stay in work.

Creating more well-paid, skilled, full-time jobs is the only way to secure a sustainable recovery that works for everyone, as it will raise people’s incomes and help them to work at their potential again.

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How we get better quality jobs – fulfilling and rewarding for individuals – is one of the topics being discussed at the upcoming TUC Conference: After Austerity

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Reader comments


1. Girlsteve

Quite often a part time job isn’t actually better than no job. For all the press scare mongering about the benefit culture, on the whole we’re conditioned to feel we HAVE to work. I’m not saying that that impulse in itself is a bad thing, but I know plenty of people who have taken on a job that effectively hurts them. These people would probably be better of on benefits, because their jobs don’t cover their basic standard of living and cost them in both time and additional costs – I once did a job it cost more to get to that I was paid, but I kept doing it because I didn’t want to get a gap in my CV and I didn’t want the label ‘unemployed’.

Pushing for reasonable terms and wages has to be as important as pushing for job creation, because creating jobs that don’t meet those conditions is of no real value to the people that are in most need.

2. pagar

I know plenty of people who have taken on a job that effectively hurts them. These people would probably be better of on benefits

I’ve come across this too.

I agree it should be a priority to get rid of the benefits.

3. steveb

There are a large proportion of people taking low paid, part-time jobs. because they are able to claim tax-credits based on the fact that they have children. This precludes single people and those without children from taking those jobs unless they are living in a household with others who earn a decent/living wage.

It is, therefore, unfair to assert that those working in poorly paid, part-time jobs, with one set of benefits, are somehow better than those who do not work, and continue to stay on other types of benefits.

4. Barrie J

It is impossible to believe any unemployment statistics published by the Government, it serves their interest to spin them to support their ‘economic credibility.’

Search unemployment at politics.co.uk for some sort of clue.

Perhaps we should be asking our politicians why tax payer funded benefits are paid to people in full time work.
Surely this suggests that the taxpayer is subsidising employers who refuse to pay a living wage.

5. Dan

Full time jobs the only way to a sustainable recovery?? Have you not seen how resilient Holland has been thanks to its part-time work culture? Or the New Economics Foundation’s proposals for 21 hour working week http://neweconomics.org/blog/2012/01/12/a-21-hour-working-week-is-long-overdue which would provide jobs for the underemployed and prevent there from being a ‘reserve labour force’ of the unemployed?

If unions want any partnership with the environmental movement, they are going to have to wake up to new kinds of work that don’t destroy the environment, rely on endless growth or drive our debt-fuelled lifestyles. Of course I want higher wages for all, but there are better policy measures than full jobs for a few, paid for with money we don’t have.

6. BenM

The Tory pom pom wavers think this is a success.

7. Oliver

@5. Dan

There’s a lot of sense in this and I like the ’21 hour’ proposals but how does the success of Germany and Holland’s part-time work stand on ‘like for like’ basis when mortgage/rent and cost of living is factored in? Does this work in Holland and Germany because of *other* factors that we don’t here?

I’m not wholly convinced that ‘over-employment’ (in that someone is willing to drop hours AND pay) is that much of a *long term* issue. The demographic that want to address is dominated by those at the end of their working lives. I’d have thought that most of those in the middle of their working lives now will never be in the position to think they’re over-employed (as opposed to over-worked).

I genuinely like a lot of the 21 hour stuff but I’m not sure how we can get there from here (if that makes sense). I get the feeling that we’d have to ensure that a lot of other things have changed in society/politics/economics before we can do this.

8. Tony monttana

If you want to be treated like a donkey or work horse fed on hay no lunch break, holiday pay, witheld pay,short term assignment go to an employment agency.attached to the jobcentre.


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