Anticipating the 1990 Workforce

Abstract

The structure of the workforce has been changing fundamentally in recent years. The gender composition is changing; full-time employment is declining steadily, while part-time employment is increasing dramatically; self-employment is growing, and employers are increasingly subcontracting work, and temporary or fixed-term contract work is on the increase as employers search for more flexible ways in organizing work. In analysing these trends, the T.U.C. has just completed its own study of what has been happening over the last 5 years. It found that between June 1980 and June 1985 the number of employees in employment had fallen by 1.6 million or 7%. In the same period, self-employment had increased by 30% and unemployment by 112%. The largest increases in self-employment were in the financial service industries and in the construction industry. Much of the increase has been at the expense of full-time direct employment. Contrary to the governmental view that self-employment means small businesses, most of the increase in self-employment can be accounted for by casualization and the growth in subcontracting. The fall in the number of employees in employment was almost entirely in male employment, which fell by 1.5 million to 11.8 million in the 5 years to June 1985. In the same period, female employment fell by 0.3 million. By the early 1990s male employment is expected to have fallen to around 11 million. Since 1983, there has been a small increase in employees in employment. However, this has been based on part-time working and is almost totally confined to the female workforce. Nine out of ten jobs created since 1983 are part-time female jobs. In June 1985, out of a total of 9.3 million female employees, 42% worked part-time. Most of these part-time jobs are concentrated in the service sector, especially in the lower-paid and less skilled jobs. Virtually all female manual work in health, education and social services is organized on a part-time basis. If the present trends continue, it is estimated that by the 1990s, women will comprise 50% of employees in employment, and one in four employees will work part-time. The de-industrialization of Britain is reflected in the shift in employment away from the manufacturing industry to the service sector. Between June 1980 and June 1985 the number of employees in employment in manufacturing fell by 20%. The dominant concept of work as a full-time male activity, with women working intermittently, is therefore increasingly at odds with the realities of work. Nevertheless, the full implications of the changes in the structure of the workforce outlined above are not yet being discussed to any great extent. The changes have far-reaching consequences for people's domestic and social lives as well as their working lives. They offer real possibilities for organizing work in more equitable and flexible ways, for reducing working time and for sharing available work.