Flexible work in the UK - Statistics & Facts

Flexible working arrangements are becoming increasingly popular with workers in the United Kingdom, with economic, technological, and social trends encouraging this development to continue. The number of part-time workers in the UK, for example, has increased from 6 million in May 1992 to 8.7 million by June 2019. This increase equated to a 45 percent growth in part-time workers compared with an increase of just 22.8 percent in full-time workers during the same period. From March 2020 onwards, however, the number of part-time workers in the UK has fallen significantly, while the number of full-time workers continued to grow.

Flexible working hours

As flexibility in where people work has grown, so too has flexibility in when people work. As of 2021, over 3.9 million people in the UK were able to take advantage of flexi-time, an arrangement that enables workers to, within certain parameters, choose their start and finish times. A less common arrangement is the compressed working week, whereby employees work for 4.5 days a week, or for 9 days a fortnight, in place of the traditional 5 day week. Other types of flexible working contracts such as annualized hours or term-time working have also increased in recent years. In general those who have been able to partake in flexible working have seen it as a good thing. A majority of both men and women stated that flexible working was a positive experience, with just two percent of men and five percent of women seeing it as a negative one. There is also broad support for further flexibility, with 63 percent of British people supporting the introduction of a four-day working week, while the traditional 9 to 5 working day is one of the least popular working times for British adults.

Zero-hours contracts

One of the most controversial types of working contract in the UK is the zero-hours contract, a type of employment contract that doesn't guarantee the worker a minimum number of working hours from their employers. In the last few decades, the number of workers on this type of contract has increased substantially, from just 225,000 in 2000 to over 1.03 million in 2022. Younger workers were far more likely to be on this type of contract than older ones, with around 386,000 16 to 24 year-old's on zero hours contracts in 2022, compared with just 163,000 25 to 34 year-old's. Zero-hours contracts were also far more common in some industries than others, with almost a quarter of accommodation and food sectors workers on this type of contract, compared with just 2.7 percent in construction.
This text provides general information. Statista assumes no liability for the information given being complete or correct. Due to varying update cycles, statistics can display more up-to-date data than referenced in the text.
Published by D. Clark, Dec 20, 2023

Key insights

Number of part-time workers in the UK
8.46m
Number of temporary workers in the UK
1.62m
Number of workers on zero-hours contracts UK
1.18m
Get more insights

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Number of employees in flexible working contracts in the United Kingdom in 2023, by type of contract (in 1,000s)

Employment

Number of flexible working contract employees UK 2023, by type

Median annual earnings for part-time employees in the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2023 (in nominal GBP)

Wages & Salaries

Average annual earnings for part-time employees in the UK 1999-2023

Availability and use of flexible working arrangements in the United Kingdom in 2019

Employment

Availability and use of flexible working arrangements in the UK 2019

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Higher education in the UK
Higher education in the UK
Labor market in the UK
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