The latest quarterly labour market statistics, published earlier today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), highlight a continuation of the recent pattern of employment growth, with only self-employment and temporary jobs on the increase. This pattern may be a response to the abundance of Eastern European migrants in the UK workforce, according to John Philpott, Chief Economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
Commenting on this monthís ONS figures, Dr Philpott says:
ìThe latest figures do not suggest that the UK labour market is getting tighter. There are more people in work and unemployment is down. But the unemployment rate is unchanged and growth in regular pay (average earnings excluding bonuses) has dipped again. Growth in regular pay is a better measure of underlying wage pressure than growth in average earnings including bonuses, which has picked up but only in private sector services, fuelled no doubt by large City bonuses.
ìOverall, this is not a particularly good time to be an employee. Pay settlements remain modest despite the recent spike in the cost of living and there are fewer jobs in both manufacturing and the public sector. Manufacturing employment is now lower than at any time for a generation while todayís ONS figures showing a 22,000 drop in public sector employment in the final quarter of 2006 are a harbinger of more job cuts to come.
ìThe only extra jobs at present are for temporary staff (the latter up by 71,000 or 5% in the latest quarter alone) and the self-employed. This growth in ëcontract workingí is almost certainly a reflection of the increased supply of migrant workers from Central and Eastern Europe. Of those migrants registered to work as employees in the UK at least half are on temporary contracts, with many others either not registered or working as self-employed contractors (including the infamous ëPolish plumbersí). Whatever the impact of these migrants on overall levels of pay and employment it looks as though their arrival might be having an effect on the types of jobs on offer in the UK labour market.î
Employment growth confined to temps and self-employed
Employment growth confined to temps and self-employed as firms ëmould jobs to match shape of growing migrant workforceí
