Low pay and zero-hours contracts rise dramatically – The Observer

Last Updated: December 14, 2014By

141115zerohours

New figures have revealed the dramatic spread of low-paid, insecure and casual work across the British economy since the financial crash of 2008, according to The Observer.

In that year, one in 20 men and one in 16 women worked in the casualised labour market. Now, one in 12 of both men and women are in precarious employment, which includes zero-hours contracts (ZHCs), agency work, variable hours and fixed-term contracts, according to new TUC data.

According to the analysis, in 2008 there were 655,000 men in the casualised labour market. That number has risen by 61.8% to 1.06 million. The casualised female workforce has increased by 35.6%, from 795,000 in 2008 to 1.08 million in 2014.

The TUC is also publishing research showing that since 2008, only one in 40 new jobs has been full-time. Over the same period, 60% of net jobs added have been self-employed and 36% have been part-time.

More information is in the article – give it a visit.

Thanks to Nick Rhodes for editing the graph showing the rise of food bank use, to add in the most recent increases. The height of the image speaks for itself - no wonder the Conservatives had to devise a new excuse for it.

Thanks to Nick Rhodes for editing the graph showing the rise of food bank use, to add in the most recent increases. The height of the image speaks for itself – no wonder the Conservatives had to devise a new excuse for it.

Interestingly, the article does not mention the contribution made by zero-hours contracts and low-paid work to the rise of food banks.

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7 Comments

  1. marcusdemowbray December 14, 2014 at 7:16 pm - Reply

    David “We’re all in it together”-“Big Society”-CaMoron

  2. chopale December 14, 2014 at 9:47 pm - Reply

    David; what puzzles me is why Labour are not way ahead in the polls? Or is it that we have a don’t care society! The greed factor is still spreading. 10% of the country on a low wage and 70% are earning well, and 20% don’t care as they are wealthy. Not forgetting the people who are not working as well as the unwell. Maybe this news is not getting spread enough around this country.

    • Mike Sivier December 14, 2014 at 10:27 pm - Reply

      Who’s David?
      Labour aren’t ahead for a possible combination of several reasons. It may be that: Labour’s current policies don’t appeal to the majority of people and they’d rather let the Conservatives strip them down to the bone; The Tories are succeeding in their attempts to brand Labour as the party of economic irresponsibility (even though wiser minds can see that the Conservative Party is causing far more damage than Labour ever could); Lynton Crosby’s minions are succeeding in their whispering campaign against other parties including Labour, saying that there’s no point in voting because the main political parties are “all the same” (they’re not); or perhaps people are so shallow that they won’t vote Labour because they think Ed Miliband “looks weird”.

  3. philipburdekin December 14, 2014 at 9:47 pm - Reply

    Once the a**eholes are out let’s hope the next government changes this zero hours cr*p, gets the country to some sort of normality and puts the country back together after the TORY a**es have ripped apart.

  4. Jeffery Davies December 15, 2014 at 8:09 am - Reply

    Trouble is again these self employed jobs who people were
    talked into by their jcp who helped them with benefits so that
    they took them hook line and sinker now these people who done
    this on low wages surviving mainly on those benefits because
    they didnt get enough work will now be called in and once again
    beaten robbed because now they say you have to pay all those
    nice benefit back as one didnt work enough hours welcome
    to rtu ids world jeff3

  5. Barry Davies December 15, 2014 at 9:12 am - Reply

    As long as the employment is being flooded the people at the bottom can be easily replaced boss’ have no reason to do anything else, however labour is not the answer because they believe that the free flow of immigrants from the eussr is in our best interests although equally they accept the inbuilt racism of stopping immigrants from other areas being allowed to immigrate.

    • Mike Sivier December 15, 2014 at 9:33 am - Reply

      If Labour believes in the free flow of immigrants – not from any EUSSR as I’m not a fascist and don’t use such terms – why is it proposing measures to restrict that flow? You’re not making a lot of sense today, Barry.

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