`Proper' jobs vanish as new work goes to part-timers

Employment/ New trends

FULL-TIME employment in Britain is actually falling, though the trend is masked by the huge growth in part-time work, official government figures have disclosed.

And the number of full-time jobs for men continues to fall faster than for women. Fewer than 10 million men have "proper" jobs, a drop of around five million since the Conservatives regained power in 1979.

In the last three months of 1994, 173,941 new part-time jobs were created, but a total of 74,120 full-time jobs disappeared, according to an analysis of official employment by the University of Durham. The net gain in employment of 99,825 was entirely part-time.

John Edmonds, general secretary of the general union GMB, said: "These numbers graphically demonstrate that Kenneth Clarke is right about the absence of the feel-good factor.

"Our economy and credit systems are based on full-time employment and prosperity in the housing market. This move to part-time work, generally in low-paid, insecure sectors is undermining the recovery."

Seasonally adjusted unemployment fell by 27,400 last month, bringing dole queues down to the lowest level for three years. Unemployment now stands at 8.4 per cent.

Of the 21 million people in employment, excluding the self-employed, 9.5 million are men in full-time jobs, with 5.5 million women also in full-time work. The jobs trend is firmly towards a part-time Britain, with women taking the lion's share of new employment.