Unite campaigners unveil a banner at Newcastle United's stadium, which is sponsored by insecure work employer Sports Direct. Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

The North East is England’s insecure work hot spot

15 Mar 2017, by Anjum Klair in Labour market

The North East is becoming England’s hot spot for insecure work with two out of three new jobs in the last five years falling into this category.

One in nine workers in the region are now in insecure jobs: seasonal, casual, temporary or agency work, including zero-hours contracts and low-paid self-employed roles.

The TUC estimates that over 3 million people now work in insecure jobs. Our previous analysis showed that the number of insecure jobs has soared by 27 per cent, or 660,000 over the past five years. We can now see that there are huge regional differences in how these jobs are distributed.

Jobs growth since 2011 by insecure and secure work

Whereas the North East and the North West stand out for the largest net increases in insecure work since 2011, London stands out for very different reasons. Not only has the capital seem the largest growth in employment, the capital has also recorded the highest increase in the proportion of work that is seen as ‘secure’ employment.

Insecure and secure work contribution to employment growth

My blog yesterday showed how London has had:

the highest growth in employee jobs

the smallest loss in public sector jobs

and the highest growth in private sector jobs.

We can now add that it has had:

the highest increase in proportion of work that is seen as secure employment.

Annex: Regional employment data All data used is from ONS – Q4 2011-2016