The state of working Britain

Edited by Paul Gregg and Jonathan Wadsworth, Manchester University Press, 285 pages, hardback £45.00, paperback £14.99

A chapter by Susan Harkness in this book shows that the "nine-to-five" job is a thing of the past. While nearly 60% of men have basic weekly working hours of between 30 and 39, this drops to 15% when paid and unpaid overtime is included. One third of men with children work for more than 50 hours, compared with around a quarter 10 years ago. This book provides an extremely thorough overall description of the British labour market and its changing features over the past 30 years. The first of three sections deals with the lack of jobs, with special attention devoted to the increase in economic inactivity among older men and the rise of the workless household. The second section examines the characteristics of jobs, such as hours, tenure and youth or gender composition. The final section looks at various aspects of earnings, and one of its conclusions is that widening inequality in access to work and wages underlies the massive rise in poverty in Britain in the 1980s.

Each chapter is written by an expert in the field it covers, and is preceded by a very useful summary of its key points. This book is an invaluable, revelatory analysis of the British labour market.