Full-time job numbers fell across East Midlands during recession

The analysis shows that in the East Midlands the labour market share of full-time employee jobs was 64.2 per cent in 2007 but fell to 63 per cent in 2014. This is equivalent to a shortfall of over 25,000 full-time employee jobs, according to the TUC.

The Midlands TUC believes that both part-time work and self-employment are important options for many people. However, despite recent economic growth, the number of part-time employees across the UK who say they want full-time hours – 1.3 million people – is still twice what it was before the recession.

The Midlands TUC believes that the rise in self-employment is at least in part a result of people being unable to find employee jobs or being forced into false self-employment – used by some companies to evade taxes and avoid respecting employment rights and entitlements such as holiday pay, sick pay and pensions.

Midlands TUC Regional Secretary Lee Barron said: “While more people are in work there are still far too few full-time employee jobs for everyone in the East Midlands who wants one. It means many working families are on substantially lower incomes than they would wish as they can only find reduced hours of work or low-paid self-employment.

“The Chancellor has said he wants full employment for the UK economy, but that means full-time jobs for everyone who wants them. At the moment there are still not enough full-time employee jobs being created in the East Midlands to meet demand.”

Next month the TUC is to launch its Decent Jobs campaign to draw attention to the millions of people in the UK who are trapped in low-paid and insecure jobs. There include more than 1.4 million zero-hours contracts in use, as well as agency and other casual workers who – due to the temporary nature of their employment – often lose out on basic rights at work.

As this analysis shows the economic recovery may be creating many new jobs, but the UK has yet to make up for the thousands of full-time, permanent jobs that were lost in the recession. It is these types of jobs that many people want but can’t get, and which are necessary if the economic recovery is to be a sustainable one, says the TUC.