North West is lacking 71,000 full-time employee jobs compared to pre-recession labour market, says TUC

Lynn Collins, Regional Secretary of the North West Trade Union Congress

The share of jobs in the North West accounted for by full-time employees fell during the recession and has failed to recover across the region, according to new analysis published today (Thursday) by the TUC in the North West.

The analysis shows that in the North West the labour market share of full-time employee jobs was 66 per cent in 2007 but fell to 64 per cent in 2014. This is equivalent to a shortfall of 71,000 full-time employee jobs, according to the TUC. This is the highest of any region outside of the South East.

The North West TUC believes that both part-time 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 North West 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.

North West TUC Regional Secretary Lynn Collins said: “While more people are in work there are still far too few full-time employee jobs for everyone in the North West 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 North West 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.

During Decent Jobs Week – which runs from Monday 15 to Sunday 21 December – the TUC will be releasing a number of stories about Britain’s emerging crisis in job insecurity, and will be organising a series of events and activities across England and Wales.