Toggle high contrast
Issue date
New data published today (Monday) by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, has placed the UK in 23rd place out of 28 for its record on underemployment.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “These figures show what a bad time British people are having at work compared with their European neighbours.

27 April 2015

New data published today (Monday) by Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, has placed the UK in 23rd place out of 28 for its record on underemployment.

The figures, which show that the UK underemployment rate was 31 per cent higher than the EU average in 2014, are a sign of the government’s failure to create the decent jobs people need, says the TUC.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “These figures show what a bad time British people are having at work compared with their European neighbours.

 “We have a fragile recovery built on pumped-up house prices, instead of the strong foundation of good quality jobs with decent hours and wages.

“The current approach just isn’t delivering enough high quality jobs to meet demand and it’s leaving too many families struggling to get by on scraps of work.”

The TUC believes that the Eurostat data reinforces the findings of its own analysis, published yesterday, on short-hours contracts. The analysis found that in addition to the 700,000 workers who report being on zero-hours contracts, there are another 820,000 UK employees who report being underemployed on between 0 and 19 hours a week.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- The Eurostat release on underemployment can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/6800423/3-27042015-AP-EN.pdf/08a0ac51-c63d-44d0-ad29-248127fd01c3

- The TUC release on short-hours contracts can be found at https://www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issues/zero-hours-contracts-just-tip-iceberg-low-paid-and-insecure-jobs-says-tuc

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Follow the TUC on Twitter: @tucnews

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

To access the admin area, you will need to setup two-factor authentication (TFA).

Setup now