According to research done by National Statistics, about 5.4 million workers in the UK (nearly one in five) would prefer to change their working hours, with most wanting to work shorter hours for less pay. The full results are published in Labout Market Trends.
The autumn 2001 Labour Force Survey found there were 2.979 million workers who would have liked to work shorter hours
for less pay. Older workers, managers, those in top-paying occupations and workers who had been with their employers for a long time were the most likely to want to work shorter hours for less pay.
On the other hand, there were 2.388 million workers who wanted to work longer hours (though many of those were not actually available to do so). Part-timers, young workers and those in low-skilled and low-paid occupations were the most likely to be underemployed. Of 16 to 24-year-old workers, 12.5 per cent were underemployed, compared with
4.3 per cent of workers aged over 49. By region, the rate of
underemployment was highest in the South West and next highest in Wales. It was lowest in Northern Ireland and next lowest in the East region.
