The number of underemployed in the workforce is increasing, according to TUC analysis in September of thelatest Labour Force Survey from the Office for National Statistics. People are counted as underemployed if they are in part-time work because they cannot get full-time jobs or they would like to work more hours in their current job.
The TUC has found that whereas unemployment has fallen by about 400,000 in the past two years underemployment has increased by 93,000 to 3.4 million, as against 2.3 million in early 2008, just before the recession started. Which all goes some way to explain why when unemployment is supposed to be falling income growth is at one of its lowest ever recorded levels.