Record numbers of workers are being forced to go part-time because their bosses cannot afford to pay full-time salaries, official figures revealed today.
There are now 6.6million employees working part-time in Britain, the highest number since records began.
Experts blamed the longest recession in history for triggering the explosion in ‘half-time Britain’, and warned the number of unwilling part-timers will keep on climbing.
Many are being given an ultimatum by their bosses that they must forfeit their full-time jobs and go part-time, or be made redundant.
In other cases, people are desperately looking for full-time work, but can only find a part-time job which they have no choice but to accept despite the lower salary.
The ballooning numbers of part-time workers is ‘disguising’ the jobs crisis because it makes the unemployment numbers seem less dramatic.
Overall, the figures, published yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, show unemployment rose modestly, up 21,000 to 2.49million in the three months to October.
But the situation is actually much worse, experts warned today.
The number of full-time employees has collapsed, plunging 85,000 during the same period – but part-time employees have jumped by 123,000.
Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said: ‘Part-time Britain indicates the continuing pain of the recession.
‘It helps keep the lid on unemployment, but it it an underlying sign of the pain still being inflicted on the UK workforce by the recession.’
More than one million people said they are only working part-time because they could not get a full-time job, according to the ONS.
This is the highest number since records began, and has shot up by nearly 40 per cent over the last year.
LibDem Treasury spokesman Lord Oakeshott said workers are paying the price for the recession, while allowing the Government to boast that it has stopped an unemployment crisis.
He said: ‘This is the hidden unemployment, from top City solicitors to people working in factories. They are being forced to go part-time, and having their pay slashed.’
The ONS figures show that women are paying the heaviest price for the boom in part-time jobs and the collapse in full-time ones.
An extra 117,000 female employees starting working part-time between August and October, while 43,000 women stopped working full-time.
By comparison, only 7,000 men started working part-time, even though a similar number – 42,000 – stopped working full-time.
The move from full-time to part-time work is a heavy blow to workers’ pay packages.
Latest figures show the average female part-time worker gets £155.60 a week, compared to £426.40 a week for full-time work.
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 the most common part-time jobs for women.
Dr Philpott said: ‘The rise in involuntary part-time working and fewer full-time jobs is hitting household living standards across the board.’
For many workers, the shift to part-time work is unpopular, but better than losing their job.
But for many families, particularly those with a large mortgage to pay, the cut in salary puts their family finances under unbearable strain.
Hetal Mehta, senior economic adviser to the Ernst & Young Item Club, said: ‘Companies have been keen to minimise job losses, which they have achieved through more creative solutions such as shortened working weeks and temporary shutdowns and wage freezes.
‘The reduced working hours is being reflected in the rise in part-time employment.’
But she warned unemployment is likely to increase further in the coming months as firms cut their wage bill ‘in a bid to survive.’
Overall, the ONS figures showed record unemployment among young people aged 16 to 24, with more than 950,000 looking for work, but failing to find it.
At this level, one in five young people is out of work, described yesterday by the Tories as proof of the ‘devastating’ impact of the recession on the next generation of workers.
On a more positive note, the claimant count – the number of people getting Jobseeker’s Allowance – dropped for the first time in 21 months.
In November, the number of claimants fell by 6,300 to 1.6million. Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper said: ‘It is encouraging that there are more people in jobs as we get near to Christmas.’
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