The dawn of a new age of flexible work?

As the recession has hit Britain the overall number of jobs in the economy has fallen, however, the number of part time jobs has sharply increased.  Between March 2007 and March 2010 the number of people working in part time jobs rose by more than a quarter of a million. Inclusion researcher, Pippa Lane, debates whether we are about to see the dawn of a new age of flexible work?

For many years, researchers and campaigners have been arguing for an increase in the availability of part time jobs as a way for families to balance work and family responsibilities.  In large part, this is due to the high cost and low public subsidy of childcare that makes full time work for both parents difficult for many families to manage.  Part time jobs – particularly those that allow parents to provide care for their children out of school hours – help families to manage their budgets. This is through a reduction in childcare costs and through increased earnings and the longer term financial benefits of maintaining contact with the labour market, such as career progression.  For parents who have been out of the labour market for many years, there is some evidence that ‘mini-jobs’ (jobs of less than 16 hours per week) have the potential to act as stepping stones back into work.

Despite these benefits, part time work in the UK has tended to be low paid and low skilled.  This has meant that for parents who have qualifications and/or substantial work histories, it can be difficult to continue their careers while working part time.  A move into part time employment often signals a decrease in earnings and occupational status.  The reasons for this are complex, though workplace culture is no doubt a contributing factor.   Just last month, women were told to ‘forget about babies if they want to scale career heights’ .  These headhunters warned women not to take even a few months out of their career to care for children if they wished to progress to senior roles. One can imagine their responses to the desire of some parents to return to work part time and continue to progress in their careers. 

In a positive move, however, the coalition government has announced plans to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees.  This has the potential to change organisational cultures that currently see part time and flexible work as burdens imposed on the rest of the workforce by employees who are parents. 

It is likely that many of the new part time jobs in the economy are in workplaces that have not previously embraced flexible work practices.  Historically, the sector with the greatest number of part time workers has been Distribution, Hotels and Restaurants.  That remains the case, though the Labour Force Survey in March this year shows that the sector with the biggest increase in the proportion of the workforce working part time was Banking and Finance.  The fact that part time jobs are being created in sectors that have historically had lower levels of part time work may signal that the new part time jobs are just the type of good quality, flexible work that will help working families.

So, are we seeing the dawn of a new age of flexible work? 

A deeper look at the Labour Force Survey, however, shows us that an increasing proportion of those working part time are doing so because they can’t find full time work.  It is likely that at least some of these workers are employed in companies that are using a reduction of hours as a strategy to avoid redundancies.  Parents seeking part time roles are also facing stiffer competition as newly unemployed workers seek any job they can find – including part time roles that they would not have considered before the recession.  Demand for part time, family friendly jobs is also set to increase from another source.  An estimated 100,000 lone parents are being made liable for Lone Parent Obligations (an ending of eligibility for Income Support) when their youngest child reaches the age of five.  Lone parents face the same pressures regarding income, childcare and career progression as other families, though these issues are amplified with (in many cases) just one parent providing all of the income and childcare for the family.

Supply and demand for part time jobs is surging.  With more workplaces than ever using flexible work practices and legislation potentially de-stigmatising part time work, some of the pieces of the a family friendly labour market puzzle may be sliding into place.  Parents, however, are not exempt from the wider economic conditions facing the population in general.  As unemployment creeps towards eight per cent and massive public sector cuts loom, balancing work, childcare and family budgets might be as difficult as ever.