Increase in part-time workers... a result of the recession or a step towards work-life balance...?

By 2030 one in five UK workers will be mums, 25% of all families will be single parent and up to 10 million will be caring for elderly relatives.

The news last week that the numbers of part time workers has hit 7.82 million, the highest since records began in 1992, is not only due to the economic climate.  Changing demographics and the availability of more flexibility in the workplace is catering for the different aspirations of the current workforce.  The suggestion that the whole part time population of workers has suddenly been forced into this way of working is clearly not true.  Many people choose part time hours as a lifestyle preference. In some cases flexible and part time hours becomes the only solution to enable people to keep working and manage domestic responsibilities.

There is no doubt that employers have been more creative about reorganizing hours and workload to enable them to hang on to the talent they need for the future.  Businesses have also acquired the additional skills sets they need on a short term basis enabling them to meet fluctuating demands whilst keeping a tight control on budgets.  Despite the gathering gloom of public sector job cuts, according to the ‘Work Foundation’, 187,000 ‘knowledge based’, predominantly part time jobs have been created in the last 3 months, including, professional and technical services, arts, entertainment and recreational services, business support and property services.  If we look back to the 1990’s recovery, when the public sector was cutting back sharply, private sector jobs grew by 2m once the job market turned in 1993.  So it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel, although the fact that employers have been managing to retain labour on reduced hours this time round will stall things slightly until the slack is fully taken up again.