Key points
- The number of workers on insecure contracts has remained broadly constant between 2014 and 2021 at just over 3 million people – around 10% of the workforce.
- After rising slowly between 2014 and 2019, the number and proportion of workers on zero-hours contracts increased sharply in 2020, reaching 1 million (40% increase compared to the year before). This may reflect changes to working patterns during the pandemic. The number remained close to 1 million in 2021.
- The number and proportion of workers in non-permanent jobs decreased between 2014 and 2019, but then increased since then to 1.7 million (5% of the total workforce).
This chart shows the number and proportion of workers in insecure employment between 2014 and 2021. Individuals are counted if they are employed in any of four types of insecure employment: zero-hour contracts, non-permanent jobs, agency workers and self-employed in vulnerable sectors (including: caring and leisure; process, plant and machine operatives; and elementary occupations). Job insecurity can cause stress due to its unpredictability and the lack of power people can have when they are in insecure employment.
There were a total of 3.4 million people in insecure work in 2021 – 10.5% of the workforce. Some people will be in more than one of the below groups but are counted once in the overall total:
- 1,674,000 people (5.2% of the workforce) declared their job was in some way not permanent.
- The number of people self-employed in vulnerable sectors was similar to the number of people on zero-hour contracts at 935,000 (2.9%) and 970,000 (3%) respectively.
- 429,000 people (1.3%) worked through an agency.
Between 2014 and 2021, the overall proportion and number of workers in insecure jobs remained steady at around 3 million, which amounts to approximately 10% of the workforce. However, the composition of the group changed:
- The number of people in non-permanent jobs was decreasing until 2019 but then increased in each of the following two years.
- The number of people self-employed in vulnerable sectors and the number of agency workers also rose in the years to 2019 and then fell.
- The number of individuals on zero-hour contracts increased by 40 from 2019 to 2020 and remained elevated into 2021.
The number and proportion of people in insecure work remained the same between 2014 and 2021, suggesting the need for a strategy to reduce job insecurity. Given the impact of insecure work on health, the increase in people on zero-hours contracts is concerning and should be monitored.
- This indicator is based on a syntax provided to the ONS by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, modified to include zero-hour contracts.
- Insecure employment is made up of four categories: (i) individuals employed on zero-hour contracts; (ii) workers employed through an employment agency; (iii) individuals in a job that is in some way not permanent; and (iv) individuals self-employed in the vulnerable sectors (caring and leisure; process, plant and machine operatives; elementary occupations).
- The sum of all the categories does not equal the total number of people in insecure work, because some individuals belong to more than one category at once.
Source: Health Foundation analysis of Office for National Statistics, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, UK, 2014-2021.
