By Chris Hanlon
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Warning: Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott has warned that the rising number of part-time workers is 'flattering' Britain's unemployment statistics
More staff in Britain are being forced to work part-time than in almost any other European country, figures show.
There are 1.77million Britons classed as ‘underemployed’, which means they want to work longer hours but cannot find any available jobs.
As a result, these workers said they had no choice but to take a part-time job despite needing the money from a full-time job or extra shifts.
Experts warned yesterday that the growing problem of ‘part-time Britain’ is disguising the true level of unemployment.
The figures, from the European Union’s statistics department Eurostat, said 6.1 per cent of all British workers between the ages of 15 and 74 are underemployed.
British underemployment is higher than other major European economies such as Germany and France, where 5 per cent and 4.4 per cent of workers respectively are underemployed.
Across Europe, the average is only 4 per cent. The British number of underemployed is only beaten by two troubled economies â€" Ireland at 7.4 per cent and Spain at 6.8 per cent.
Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott said: ‘Millions of people, from builders to solicitors, cannot find the full-time jobs that they want and need.
‘For them, it is not really part-time work, but forced part-time unemployment.
'It flatters the jobless figures, disguises the real unemployment problem and helps explain why demand and spending in our economy are so depressed and growth is so slow.’
Anger: Only Spain, where there has been protests against high unemployment, and Ireland have a higher percentage of part-time workers than the UK
Moonlighting: Thousands have been forced to take part-time work like bar jobs while they seek full-time employment
On Wednesday, the Office for National Statistics’ labour market figures showed that unemployment fell by 35,000 to 2.65million between December and February this year â€" the first quarterly fall since last spring.
But the fall was fuelled by the rise in part-time workers, up 80,000 in the same period to 7.9million, while the number of full-time workers fell by 27,000 to 21.2million.
The average worker with a full-time job is paid an annual salary of £26,000 while a part-time worker gets only £8,000 on average, according to the ONS.
Families around the country are under pressure from rising household bills, frozen child benefit, a clampdown on tax credits and higher VAT of 20 per cent.
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 comm on types of part-time jobs.
For many workers, the shift to part-time work is unpopular, but better than losing their job, although the salary cut puts their family finances under unbearable strain.
Phil McCabe, from the Forum of Private Business, said: ‘For most workers, a part-time job is better than being made redundant.
‘The shift to part-time working has allowed business owners to keep hold of their valued members of staff when they are firefighting to survive the recession and the slow recovery.
‘Bosses can increase their workers’ hours when the business picks up again.’
John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, said: ‘The only explanation is that they cannot find anything else. It is a choice between a part-time job and being unemployed.’
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If YOU insist on mentioning damn Europe in most articles,part-time employment low wages WILL be everywhere in EUROPE soon we are leading the way.Go east.
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That twit from southend - has he been shadowing public sector workers to make tedious comments like this. The constant bashing of public servants by ignorant people is all getting rather tedious
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Most in the public sector work part time on a full time salary and inflated pension
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Netcontributor............It was the Tory Goverment that came up with the disability benefit to hide the number of miners, steel workers and shipbuilder who were put on the dole in the 80s...The reason for the part-time hours in retail is to reduce the holiday pay, a 20 hour contract means 20 hours holiday pay, even though most weeks they might work 30 hours.
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If we can have "Minimum Wage" rules, why cant we have "Minimum Hours" rules. When my wife went for her present job it was for 16 hours, now the government has moved the hours to 24 for benifits for low paid workers why cant employers be forced to extend the hours.
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Supermarkets are one of the biggest problems when it comes to not allowing their workers to have full time hours. They are hiring more people to do part time work to meet the figures they have been set and look good so they can expand even further. In turn these individuals through no fault of their own have to claim for benefits which is rinsing our taxes and economy. But we are still allowing Mr Tesco and Mr ASDA to walk away with the big bucks. Supermarkets need to take more responsibility as the one the UK's largest employers.
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That's a bit rich coming from a Lib-Dem. Where were the Lib-Dem protests when our industrial base was being destroyed in order to fit into the European jigsaw?
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Part-time Britain: UK has 1.8million 'under-employed' staff!!!!!!!!.......Nowhere near correct! Perhaps the public sector wasn't included??
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It will only get worse. The government encourages it because it keeps the unemployment figures artificially low. Its why labour also encouraged people to move off unemployment benefit and onto disability - same thing - it keeps the unemployment figures artificially low.
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