National Minimum Wage

Chapter 2: The Impact of the National Minimum Wage
Table 2.8: Change in Employee Jobs, by Low-paying Industry, GB, 1998-2011
2011
September
Change on 2010
September
Change on 2009
September
Change on 1998
September
000s 000s % 000s % 000s %
All industries 25,839 -66 -0.3 -324 -1.2 1,561 6.4
All low-paying industries 8,176 53 0.7 73 0.9 402 5.2
Consumer 5,510 82 1.5 -17 -0.3 435 8.6
Retail 3,114 -11 -0.4 -71 -2.2 25 0.8
Retail (excluding motor) 2,684 2 0.1 -64 -2.3 95 3.7
Hospitality 1,796 77 4.5 33 1.9 227 14.5
Leisure, Travel and Sport 492 4 0.8 19 4.0 150 43.9
Hairdressing 108 12 12.5 2 1.9 33 44.0
Business 1,450 25 1.8 70 5.1 253 21.1
Cleaning 638 13 2.1 13 2.1 48 8.1
Employment agencies 635 17 2.8 58 10.1 158 33.1
Security 177 -5 -2.7 -1 -0.6 47 36.2
International trade 622 -20 -3.1 13 2.1 -376 -37.7
Food processing 328 -1 -0.3 -3 -0.9 -101 -23.5
Agriculture 214 -16 -7.0 19 9.7 -53 -19.9
Textiles, clothing 80 -3 -3.6 -3 -3.6 -222 -73.5
Government 594 -34 -5.4 7 1.2 90 17.9
Social care 594 -34 -5.4 7 1.2 90 17.9
Source: LPC estimates based on ONS employee jobs series, three-monthly, not seasonally adjusted, GB, 1998-2011.
2.78 The number of part-time employee jobs in the whole economy increased over the past year
(up by 0.4 per cent), but this increase was offset by a fall in full-time employee jobs (down
0.6 per cent). In the low-paying sectors there were increases in both full-time and part-time
employee jobs, with a stronger increase in part-time jobs (up 1.2 per cent) than in full-time
ones (up 0.4 per cent). This has particularly been the case in hospitality (where part-time jobs
rose by 6.5 per cent and full-time jobs by 2.0 per cent) and employment agencies (part-time
jobs rose by 5.5 per cent and full-time jobs by 1.7 per cent). In contrast retail saw a slight
increase in full-time jobs (up 0.2 per cent) compared with a fall in part-time ones (down 0.6
per cent). Since September 1998, however, the number of full-time employee jobs in lowpaying
sectors has risen by 12.6 per cent, while part-time jobs have fallen by 2.1 per cent.
This is a different picture to the whole economy which has seen an increase of 2.6 per cent
in the number of full-time employee jobs since September 1998, but a much larger increase
in part-time jobs (up 15.4 per cent).
2.79 According to the LFS, in the third quarter of 2010 just under 50 per cent of all employees
worked in small firms (with fewer than 50 workers). Around 19 per cent worked for micro
firms (defined here as 10 or fewer workers) with about 27 per cent working in other small
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