The Growing Number Of Part-Time Jobs Could Be An Economic Disaster

The economic chaos and aftermath of the credit crunch in great britain has seen some interesting changes to employment trends. Actual amounts of unemployed haven't increased as sharply as expected, to put it accurately in August 2010 unemployment stood at 7.8% of the working population, this is down .2% on the previous quarter but remarkably unchanged year on year. ILO-defined unemployment in April to June was 2.46 million (7.8%) - down by 49,000 on the previous quarter but up 23,000 from a year previously, remarkably the claimant count for key out-of-work benefits in July was 1,461,200 million - down by 3,800 on last month and down by 120,400 on a year ago.<p />Unfortunately whenever you dig somewhat deeper you can find some interesting if not worrying trends occurring, longterm unemployment has doubled along with the greatest impact being on males under 25 years old. Just about the most worrying trends is the growth in part-time employment with more than 1 million people now in part-time jobs. Whilst there will always be a large number of people choosing part-time work to fit in with other commitments in their lives, such as being a student or mother, there is now a growing number of people taking part-time jobs because they cannot find permanent full-time jobs. This fact combined with many households having had existing incomes reduced through loss of bonuses, pay freezes and even pay cuts in some cases, is adding more and more financial pressure to household budgets. In many cases if one member of the household is employed, albeit with reduced income and the spouse or partner becomes unemployed there is little choice but to take a part-time job in an attempt to maintain the household income. This necessity to accept part-time work is often facilitated by the qualifying criteria for state benefits and or tax credits.<p />This continuing pressure to take part-time work as an alternative to unpaid unemployment has som potentially worrying side effects, firstly we have the de-skilling of skilled and professionally qualified individuals and secondly we have the reduced spending abilty of households. The consequences of long term de-skilling seem to be ignored by government as is the potential impact on Great britain Plc, when employment levels begin to rise as a result of the economic recovery many part-time workers will be stuck in a de-skilled labour market trap, there is also likely to be further increases of inward migration from other EU member states to fill this vacuum and take up positions that will be subject to internal wage inflation. In the short term the reduced income of households is likely to reduce consumer spending and further slow down economic recovery. Further more there is evidence to suggest that with the combined impact of government austerity measures that are deemed to be required, there will be an increase in child poverty, the break up of relationships, marriages, and increased health problems and the associated costs to the health service. In conclusion perhaps the previous government's idea of spending our way out of recession were not so daft!

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