Record number of people on zero-hours contracts

Max Craft, an employment lawyer at Portsmouth law firm Blake Morgan, said: ‘A closer look at the figures reveals an interesting development, specifically, considerable less use of zero-hours contracts in the last six months of 2016.

‘The Resolution Foundation has analysed the figures in the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey.

‘This shows that a record number of 910,000 people are working on zero-hours contracts and 105,000 more people are on such contracts in 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

‘This is an increase of nearly 14 per cent and 30 per cent higher than 2014.

‘However, there was a significant slowing down in the rate of increase in the last half of 2016.

‘The increase was only 0.8 per cent compared to a 7.7 per cent increase for the same period in 2015.’

He added: ‘The current labour market provides one explanation. With more work available and many employers finding it difficult to recruit good qualified staff individuals may look for contracts with guaranteed hours of work rather than having to take a zero-hours contract.’