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Written question asked by Dan Jarvis (Labour) on Wednesday, 14 November 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 19 November 2018 (named day). A holding answer was provided on Monday, 19 November 2018. A substantive answer was provided by Lord Sharma (Conservative) on Tuesday, 20 November 2018 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Zero Hours Contracts: Young People

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Youth unemployment down 50% since 2010, published on gov.uk on 16 October 2018, what proportion of recorded employment was under a zero-hours contract.

Answer

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) use the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to provide estimates for the number of people employed on zero hours’ contracts.

The ONS figures for people in employment on zero hours’ contracts broken down by age, do not go back to 2010 and are only currently available up to April-June 2018. Therefore no directly comparable figures to the youth unemployment statistics cited are available.

The majority of young people are not employed on zero hours’ contracts. In 2018 (Apr-Jun) there were 261,000 16-24 year olds on a zero hours’ contracts – representing only 6.9% of employed 16-24 year olds.

This is down from 299,000 young people (7.8% of employed young people) in 2017 (Apr-Jun), but a slight increase from the first comparable data available, which shows in 2014 (Apr-Jun) there were 235,000 young people on a zero hours’ contract (or 6.3% of employed young people).

Many people in full-time education are employed on zero hours’ contracts, in part because of the flexibility they provide. 18.5% of all people in 2018 (Apr-Jun) on zero hours’ contracts were in full-time education – compared to 2.3% of people not on a zero hours’ contract.

The ONS data shows that the majority of people on zero hours’ contracts are happy with the hours provided by their zero hours’ contract.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
191422
Session
2017-19
Registered interest declared
Yes
Subjects
Young people Zero hours contracts
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk