Work in the UK no less secure than it was 20 years ago

According to latest findings, despite economic uncertainty and job security concerns, work in the UK is as secure as it was 20 years ago, with limited evidence of growing casualisation.

The CIPD report, ‘Megatrends: Is work really becoming more insecure?’, revealed that at 20%, the share of non-permanent employment in the UK – which includes the self-employed and temporary workers (including temporary zero hours contract workers) – has not increased since 1998.

The share of ‘involuntary’ temporary workers who would rather have a permanent job is highly cyclical and ebbs and flows with the economic climate. It peaked at about 41% in 1994, before falling to just under 26% in 2007. It increased again during the economic downturn to 40% in 2013 before falling again to just under 27% by 2018.

The data also shows that most people not in traditional ‘9-5’ employment – whether they are self-employed, working in the digital gig economy or on a zero hours contract – choose to work in this way and are broadly satisfied.

Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, commented on the recent findings, “This report counters some of the common rhetoric that employment in the UK is becoming more insecure. On a wide range of indicators, the evidence suggests that, overall, employment security has remained broadly stable over the last two decades with very little evidence of any structural big increase in casual and insecure work. Increases in employment insecurity where they have occurred seem to be cyclical, linked to economic downturns, rather than a long-term trend.

“This suggests that more attention should be paid by policy makers and employers on improving job quality and workplace productivity across the economy to tackle problems such as low pay and discrimination, not simply on improving the rights and security of atypical workers, important though this is.

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