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Britain's insecure work scandal is laid bare today in figures that show almost a million workers are on zero-hour contracts.

A huge rise was exposed in supposedly optimistic job data that showed unemployment is now at 4.7% - its joint-lowest since 1975.

Official statistics show 74.6% of all people aged 16 to 64 are now in work, the joint highest percentage rate since records began in 1971.

But that figure masks a rise in people who don't know how many hours they will work from one week to the next.

Today's Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate suggests 905,000 people were on a contract with no guaranteed weekly hours in the last three months of 2016.

That figure has risen 13% from 804,000 people in the same period a year earlier.

Zero-hour contracts now represent almost 3% of all work in the country.

(Image: ONS)

The figures are gathered by asking workers themselves what type of contract they are on.

That means there was a sharp rise in 2012 and 2013 as awareness rose of the contracts, which Labour leaders Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn have campaigned to ban, the ONS said.

This time, the ONS said, "all of the increase is from people in their job for more than a year, while there was a small decrease for those less than 12 months.

"This could reflect either increased recognition or people moving on to a zero-hours contract with the same employer."

GMB union chief Tim Roache said: "In the real world, zero hours means zero certainty. Zero security. Zero ability to plan your life, your future, your family's finances because from one week to the next, people don't know how much is going to be on their next pay slip."

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Zero-hours contracts allow bosses to treat workers like disposable labour. If you’re on a zero-hours contract you have no guarantee of work from one day to another. Put a foot wrong and you can be let go in a heartbeat. Turn down a shift because your kid’s sick and you can be left with little or no work.

(Image: Getty)

Lib Dem leader Tim Farron said: “This is a worrying sign that fewer people are finding the long-term, stable jobs they need.”

Almost 32 million people are now in work, a jump of 92,000 over the quarter and 315,000 compared with a year earlier.

The number of people on the claimant count, including Jobseeker's Allowance and those on Universal Credit required to seek work, fell by 11,300 last month to 734,700, the lowest since May 1975.

Average earnings increased by 2.2% in the year to January, down by 0.4% on the previous month.

(Image: Getty)

David Freeman, senior statistician at the ONS, said: "With the unemployment rate last lower in summer 1975 and the employment rate still at a record high, the labour market remains robust.

"But smaller wage increases and higher inflation mean the growth in real earnings has slowed sharply in recent months."

Dan Tomlinson of the Resolution Foundation think-tank said: "The number of people on zero-hours contracts has reached an all-time high at the end of last year, further confirming that they are now a permanent feature of our jobs market.

"But the zero-hours juggernaut is showing signs of slowing down, with barely any increase during the second half of 2016."