Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, commented: “The long-term fall in the share of workless households and the drop in the number of workless households over the last 12 month is the result of an increase in both the number of good solid jobs being created and a rise in the amount of zero-hour contracts available, particularly in fast-paced industries such as food and retail.
“While, as individuals, we might prefer that all the jobs created across the labour market were highly paid long-term jobs with excellent pay and benefits, on balance, the country sees significant benefit from these flexible contracts and the associated employment they provide, than without them. And the prevalence of zero-hours roles may drop in the future. As the labour market tightens, employers will need to work harder to find people to fill their vacancies and that will drive up pay and improve benefits.
“It’s worth remembering that there are subtleties at play here, too. For instance, while worklessness in the South East is low the story is very different in the North East and Northern Ireland – this is not a homogenous picture.”