There has been a loss of full-time jobs and shift to part-time working since the start of the recession, according to ‘Working Hours in the Recession’, published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The recession has resulted in both a fall in total employment (down by a net 580,000 [2%] in the two years to spring 2010) and a shift from full-time employment (which has fallen by 910,000 [4.1%]) to part-time employment (which has increased by 330,000 [4.4%]).

This shift is to some extent due to many people working shorter hours to help their employers cut labour costs and thereby minimise redundancies. The combined impact of these changes is a net fall of 32.7m (3.5%) in the number of hours worked each week in the UK.

However, total hours have since started to rise again, indicating a modest, though uneven, pick-up in demand for labour since mid-2009.