Full time employee work being phased out?
Posted: Tue May 06, 2014 2:46 pm
Yes, I know. The subject title is a bit like a Daily Mail headline.
However, interesting article in the Guardian today about this topic.
Despite the government banging on about the 1.6 million jobs created under the coalition government, a report produced by the Resolution Foundation shows that between 2008 and 2013, the total number of employed jobs fell in nine of 12 regions , ranging from a drop of 156,000 posts in Scotland, to a fall of 24,000 in the east Midlands. The only place in which there was a discernible increase in employee status jobs was in London.
Any increase in the number in work in other regions over the 2008 baseline, after four years of recovery, was due to rising rates of self-employment, which was up everywhere except Northern Ireland.
Now the government would argue that this huge increase in self-employment represents an enormous rise in entrepreneur activity in the UK. Not much joy here. The report finds that while weekly wages for employees have fallen 6% since 2007, the typical self-employed pay has tumbled by 20% in the same time. This leaves the typical self-employed person now being paid 40% less than the average employee.
The government might argue that the figures do not include 2014 but hey, even in an economic upturn, companies experience peaks and troughs of demand so with the widespread increase in zero hours contracts, why should employers provide commitments to full time jobs with all the employee rights that provides?
Unless there is a big change to zero hours contracts, I would guess they will become the norm.
However, interesting article in the Guardian today about this topic.
Despite the government banging on about the 1.6 million jobs created under the coalition government, a report produced by the Resolution Foundation shows that between 2008 and 2013, the total number of employed jobs fell in nine of 12 regions , ranging from a drop of 156,000 posts in Scotland, to a fall of 24,000 in the east Midlands. The only place in which there was a discernible increase in employee status jobs was in London.
Any increase in the number in work in other regions over the 2008 baseline, after four years of recovery, was due to rising rates of self-employment, which was up everywhere except Northern Ireland.
Now the government would argue that this huge increase in self-employment represents an enormous rise in entrepreneur activity in the UK. Not much joy here. The report finds that while weekly wages for employees have fallen 6% since 2007, the typical self-employed pay has tumbled by 20% in the same time. This leaves the typical self-employed person now being paid 40% less than the average employee.
The government might argue that the figures do not include 2014 but hey, even in an economic upturn, companies experience peaks and troughs of demand so with the widespread increase in zero hours contracts, why should employers provide commitments to full time jobs with all the employee rights that provides?
Unless there is a big change to zero hours contracts, I would guess they will become the norm.