The Changing Face of the Labour Market

Key shifts in UK labour force composition More part-time workers More temporary workers More non UK-born workers especially A8 nationals

Pre-recession composition of employment:

Current composition of employment:

Change in composition of employment Source: ONS Excludes unpaid family workers and participants on government programmes

“Involuntary” workers as evidence of weak labour demand ? Temporary employees - about 40% say they could not find permanent job Part-time employees – just under 20% say they could not find full-time job Underemployed – about 10% of employees would like to work additional hours – and available to work extra hours [some overlap with part-time employees who say they could not find full-time job] Self-employed – no information available on whether preferred employment status and/or whether they would prefer more hours There are also significant percentages of employees who would prefer to work less hours!

What are temporary workers telling us? Almost half (44%) of employees say it is not their choice to be employed on a temporary contract A majority of those aged want a permanent contract Source: CIPD Employee Outlook Winter 2013 report

What are part-time workers telling us? Vast majority of part-time workers (89%) choose to work part-time Almost a third of part-time workers (30%) would like to work more hours A majority of part-time workers aged between would like to work more hours Employers are seen as the main barrier Source: CIPD Employee Outlook Winter 2013 report

What are employers telling us? A third of firms have cut working hours during the past five years Two thirds of those firms who have cut working hours say that skills retention is the main reason Three quarters of those firms who have cut working hours will be forced to make redundancies if growth does not pick up during first half of 2013 Average hours for PT/FT workers have recovered, average hours remain a little below average; the labour hoarding theory remains somewhat elusive CIPD to do more qualitative and quantitative work

What are the migration trends over the past decade?

Growth in number of non- UK born workers in low- skilled roles:

EU labour immigration Key questions: Are migrant workers preferred to UK-born workers and why? Why is there such a large proportion of EU workers in some industries? Is it just work ethic and skills? If ‘work ethic’ is one of the main reasons, what does this mean?

How? Survey of more than 1, 000 employers, conducted with YouGov 16 in-depth interviews with employers across different regions, sizes and sectors. Key sectors included social care, retail, hotels, catering and leisure

What are the reasons? Skills Work ethic  Unsocial hours (weekend work, night shifts): “They [migrant workers] are happy to try their hand at anything” Larger labour supply from EU Employee job referrals

Recruitment consultancies Nearly a third of private sector employers use them to hire MWs Several cases of active recruitment from host country Relationship between very high proportion of migrant workers and use of agencies for unskilled work “They [recruitment agencies] are exclusively there to recruit migrant workers”

High attrition rates among UK-born workers Poor image of the sectors, especially in retail, hotels and catering and leisure Pay and employment conditions “It’s difficult to compete with Tesco down the road” Failure of employers to sell potential progression paths, especially for job- entry roles