Publication type
Journal Article
Author
Publication date
April 15, 2015
Summary:
The economic crisis that led to recession in the UK in 2008–9 impacted in multiple ways on work and economic life. This article examines changes to the work-time of employees. The UK stood out for its recessionary expansion of work-time underemployment. Working in a job that provides ‘too few’ hours can have serious ramifications for the economic livelihood of workers. Working-class workers are central here. Drawing on analysis of large-scale survey data, the article identifies that workers in lower level occupations experienced the most substantial post-recessionary growth in the proportions working ‘too few’ hours. Did these work-time changes narrow or widen class inequalities in feelings of financial hardship? The article concludes that although middle-class workers also saw their financial positions damaged, this so-called ‘first middle-class recession’ did not erode class inequalities in financial hardship among UK workers.
Published in
Work, Employment and Society
Volume and page numbers
Volume: 29 , p.191 -212
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1177/0950017014559264
ISSN
9500170
Subjects
Notes
Open Access article
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm).
Is referenced by: Ormston, R. and Hope, S. (2016) Work and wellbeing: exploring data on inequalities. Dunfermline: Carnegie UK Trust.
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