Under-employment soars as workers only get part time jobs
THE NUMBER of men working part time because they cannot find a full-time job has more than doubled in the last four years, according to a new analysis of official data published today.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) found the number of under-employed men jumped from 293,000 in December 2007 to almost 600,000 in the final month of 2011.
Over the same time period the number of under-employed women rose 74 per cent to 780,000, bringing the total number in involuntary part time work to a record high of 1.38m.
Overall unemployment fell in last month’s labour market data, but so did the number of people working full time.
“Any job may be better than no job at all but people are having to make huge salary sacrifices to stay working,” said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
“This is bad news for family finances and it is holding back our economy.”