Indicator
Trends in insecure work
Published
8 May 2024
Last updated
25 April 2025
Time to read
About 2 mins
About 2 mins
Key points
- The number of workers in insecure employment grew between 2014 and 2022 from 3.1 million people to 3.5 million – 11% of the workforce. In the two most recent years it fell back to be 3.3 million (10% of the workforce) in 2024.
- 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 with the year before). After increasing further between 2021 and 2023, the number fell back slightly to 1.1 million in 2024.
- The number and proportion of workers in non-permanent jobs increased between 2019 and 2022, before falling back again to 1.5 million in 2024.
Job insecurity can cause stress due to its unpredictability and the lack of power people can have over their hours and conditions.
This chart shows the number of workers in insecure employment between 2014 and 2024.
- There were a total of 3.3 million people in insecure work in 2024 – 10.0% of the workforce.
- 1.5 million (4.5% of the workforce) declared their job was in some way not permanent.
- The number of people self-employed in vulnerable sectors was 972,000 (2.9% of the workforce).
- 1,084,000 people were on zero-hours contracts (3.2%) and 421,000 people (1.3% of the workforce) worked through an agency.
Between 2014 and 2024, the number of workers in insecure jobs grew from 3.1 million to 3.3 million and the proportion changed very little from 10.2% to 10.0% 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 during the COVID-19 pandemic. In both 2023 and 2024, the number decreased, but was still above the pre-pandemic level.
- The number of people self-employed in vulnerable sectors increased steadily until 2019, but declined during the pandemic and remains below pre-pandemic levels.
- Post pandemic, the number of agency workers had been rising to a new peak of 486,000 in 2023. The number in 2024 decreased slightly to 421,000.
- The number of individuals on zero-hours contracts increased by 40% from 2019 to 2020, reaching more than 1 million people. The number was similar in 2021 before increasing again until 2023 to 1.2 million people. The most recent data for 2024 shows a slight decline to 1.1 million people.
- This indicator is based on a framework provided to the ONS by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, modified to include zero-hours contracts.
- Insecure employment is made up of four categories: individuals employed on zero-hours contracts; workers employed through an employment agency; individuals in a job that is in some way not permanent; and individuals self-employed in 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.
- Annual figures are averages of quarter 2 and quarter 4 data.
Source: Office for National Statistics, Quarterly Labour Force Survey, UK, 2014–24
