Workers ‘facing hardship’ as part-time jobs soar in London

 
3 September 2012

The capital’s army of part-time workers has risen by nearly 50 per cent in the last four years, figures reveal today.

The number of people in London working in part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time ones — or saying that they would like to do more hours in their current job — has risen by 141,000 to 441,000 since 2008.

Last month, the city’s employment rate hit a two-year high, with tens of thousands taken out of the dole queues thanks to the Olympics.

National unemployment figures fell by 46,000 to 2.56  million in the three months to June and London accounted for almost that entire amount.

However, the sharp rise in the number of part-time workers has concerned unions.

Analysis by the TUC revealed that the number of “under-employed workers” has grown dramatically since the start of the recession.

Frances O’Grady, the TUC’s deputy general secretary said: “Ministers have been talking up a possible jobs revival in London, despite there still being 366,000 people out of work. But headline unemployment figures only tell half the story.

"There are nearly half a million more people who are under-employed without enough work to make ends meet.

“While any job is better than no job at all, under-employment means taking a huge drop in pay, causing real hardship for workers and their families.

“The only way to tackle joblessness and under-employment is to put decent jobs at the heart of a new economic strategy.”

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