Part-time Britain: UK has 1.8million 'under-employed' staff

By Chris Hanlon

Published: 05:33 EST, 12 May 2012 | Updated: 05:34 EST, 12 May 2012

More staff in Britain are being forced to work part-time than in almost any other European country, figures show.

There are 1.77million Britons classed as ‘underemployed’, which means they want to work longer hours but cannot find any available jobs.

As a result, these workers said they had no choice but to take a part-time job despite needing the money from a full-time job or extra shifts.

Experts warned yesterday that the growing problem of ‘part-time Britain’ is disguising the true level of unemployment.

The figures, from the European Union’s statistics department Eurostat, said 6.1 per cent of all British workers between the ages of 15 and 74 are underemployed.

British underemployment is higher than other major European economies such as Germany and France, where 5 per cent and 4.4 per cent of workers respectively are underemployed.

Across Europe, the average is only 4 per cent. The British number of underemployed is only beaten by two troubled economies – Ireland at 7.4 per cent and Spain at 6.8 per cent.

Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott said: ‘Millions of people, from builders to solicitors, cannot find the full-time jobs that they want and need.

‘For them, it is not really part-time work, but forced part-time unemployment.

'It flatters the jobless figures, disguises the real unemployment problem and helps explain why demand and spending in our economy are so depressed and growth is so slow.’

On Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics’ labour market figures showed that unemployment fell by 35,000 to 2.65million between December and February this year – the first quarterly fall since last spring.

But the fall was fuelled by the rise in part-time workers, up 80,000 in the same period to 7.9million, while the number of full-time workers fell by 27,000 to 21.2million.

The average worker with a full-time job is paid an annual salary of £26,000 while a part-time worker gets only £8,000 on average, according to the ONS.

Families around the country are under pressure from rising household bills, frozen child benefit, a clampdown on tax credits and higher VAT of 20 per cent.

It is not just the reduction in their hours which leads to the pay cut, but also the fact that many part-time jobs are lower skilled and lower paid.

Jobs known as the ‘five Cs’ - clerical, cleaning, caring, catering and cashiering - are common types of part-time jobs.

For many workers, the shift to part-time work is unpopular, but better than losing their job, although the salary cut puts their family finances under unbearable strain.

Phil McCabe, from the Forum of Private Business, said: ‘For most workers, a part-time job is better than being made redundant.

‘The shift to part-time working has allowed business owners to keep hold of their valued members of staff when they are firefighting to survive the recession and the slow recovery.

‘Bosses can increase their workers’ hours when the business picks up again.’

John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: ‘The only explanation is that they cannot find anything else. It is a choice between a part-time job and being unemployed.’