Should also keep in mind that Osborne sounded out a new agenda for growth last night.

That agenda is to attack the unions for styfling growth – and to crack down on workers rights because that styfles growth. So lower redundancy rights, reduced rights to tackle discrimination, lower pensions – and so on.

This will attempt to frame the debate along the lines of Labour supporting its vested interests in the unions – by defending workers rights – at the expense of growth.

This sort of spiteful attack on workers is what we always get from tories when the pressure is on them – given it does nothing to resolve poor management or the banking crisis it should be attackable.

So I have no prospects because I have a part-time job?
You are wrong, unlike pretty much any other period in history I can and have chosen to only work part-time in order to have a better career/family life balance.
Please put your patronising generalisations back into the prejudiced world view box they cam from.

So I have no prospects because I have a part-time job?
You are wrong, unlike pretty much any other period in history I can and have chosen to only work part-time in order to have a better career/family life balance.
Please put your patronising generalisations back into the prejudiced world view box they cam from.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to cause any offence. I have written elsewhere about the advantages that part time-work/casual work can bring. But a lot of people don’t want to work part time, but are doing so because it is better than not working at all.

Part-time work does have less prospects than full time work. Conditions are worse, the roles are often more temporary, it is less easy to build up job specific human capital etc. I don’t think you should avoid the truth of the general assertion because it is not relevant for you.

Most importantly, the two percent jump in a year does not represent a million people suddenly deciding to change their work life balance. It is people being forced into a second or third best option due to the largest recession in 70 years.

David Patterson

You are wrong, unlike pretty much any other period in history I can and have chosen to only work part-time in order to have a better career/family life balance.
Please put your patronising generalisations back into the prejudiced world view box they cam from.

Yeah, because the world revolves around you and you alone and and so you must have been the first person the author thought of when writing this piece.

Yeah, because the world revolves around you and you alone and and so you must have been the first person the author thought of when writing this piece.

BenM It is interesting that the author of the piece graciously apologises for any possible offence, while you are a bit of a tosser about the matter, as if the world revolves around you and you alone. Hmmmm.

Left Outside,

I don’t think you should worry too much about the fluctuating share of part-time to full-time employment. Maybe pointing out those who are suffering from underemployment in that they are working less hours than they would like would be more relevant. Moreover, during the recession unemployment did not rise as much as one would expect considering the fall in output. Therefore, there must be considerable underemployment in the economy. For this reason, employment growth may disappoint as the underemployed increase their hours before firms take on new workers.