Education is a boom area for zero-hours contracts

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Thursday put out figures showing a huge jump in the number of people in the UK employed on zero-hours contracts — where staff are not guaranteed any shifts, just called upon as and when businesses needs them.

The figures show the number of zero-hours contracts in the UK rose from 624,000 in April to June last year to 744,000 in the same period this year.

That's a 19% increase and the contracts now make up 2.4% of all people in employment. Usage of the contracted has rocketed over the past few years, with just 0.6% of the workforce, or 190,000 people, on them in 2011.

The ONS throws some shade on its own findings, though, saying: "It is possible that this increase may be affected by increased recognition of the term “zero-hours contracts” rather than new contracts themselves."

Zero-hours contracts have become a hugely political issue over the past year, with plenty of press coverage. Critics argue that the business-friendly contracts are exploitative of workers and prevent those on them from adequately budgeting and planning.

Unlike part-time work, employees on zero-hours contracts aren't guaranteed a set number of hours to work a week. This means people can go weeks at a time without work. When they are offered shifts, they can also be at the last minute, making them difficult to plan around.

Zero-hours contracts also provide no maternity leave or sick pay. Until recently, employers could also insert exclusivity clauses in these contracts, meaning employees couldn't work elsewhere even if they weren't working.

The Labour Party's main criticism of rising employment under the Tory-led coalition between 2010 and earlier this year was that much of it was driven by these types of employment practices.

Labour promised to ban zero-hours contracts if they were elected in May. (Discount retailer Sports Direct is a big user of zero-hours contracts and its stock rocketed when Labour lost.)

Still, even if some of the 120,000 extra contracts the ONS estimates are out there are just jobs being properly recategorized, that only means it was underestimating the scale of their usage in the first place.

The fastest growing market for zero-hours employment seems to be education.

The proportion of businesses and educational institutions using zero-hour contracts has risen from 15% to 25%. The proportion has fallen in most other industries, with the total proportion falling from 13% to 11%.

Still, the ONS urges caution with these figures too "due to the relatively small sample sizes at industry level." The ONS only surveyed 5,000 businesses in total, breaking those down into 10 sectors.

Zero-hours contracts in education still only make up 2% of the total too. The industry that accounts for the most contracts is accommodation and food, where 11.2% of all zero-hours contracts are found. 

But whichever way you cut the cake, it looks like zero-hours contracts are booming in the UK and that's bad for many employees. The average zero-hours employee works 25 hours a week and 40% want more work.

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