Zero-hours sums


Conflicting figures for the number of people on zero-hours contracts have been released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). 


Using the Labour Force Survey, it said this month that there had been a 15% rise to 800,000 in the number of people employed on a contract that guaranteed no minimum hours in their main job.


However, a survey of businesses in November suggested there were around 1.7 million contracts, where some work had recently been carried out, that did not guarantee a minimum number of hours. ONS says the variation is partly accounted for by people who have more than one zero-hours contract with different employers, or supplement their main fixed-hours job with a second job without guaranteed hours.

www.ons.gov.uk/news/news/justover800000peopleonzerohourscontractformainjob