Good numbers dominated by rise in self-employment and insecure temporary work

“This is another good set of figures with a marked fall in unemployment. However, less than a quarter of the increase in overall employment was in permanent work – of the 283,000 increase in employment, nearly two thirds of the increase was in self-employment, many of them part time. Of the 99,000 new employee jobs, a third (33,000) were temporary leaving just 66,000 as some of form of permanent contract. These permanent jobs are not necessarily secure – zero hour contracts are more likely to be for permanent than temporary posts and we have no reliable way of knowing what their contribution to overall employment growth has been in the last quarter. The overall good news may not therefore have much impact on perceptions of job insecurity.”