The ADR UK multiple employment project, headed by City-REDI’s Dr Darja Reuschke, reveals that official employment figures underestimate women’s contribution to the UK labour market.
By failing to account for multiple jobholding — especially common among women — the data risks misleading policymakers, employers, and economists.
A Misperceived Picture of Part-Time Work
Official statistics suggest that in mid-2024, 35% of employed women in the UK were working part-time — a figure that rises to 52% among self-employed women. These statistics, compiled and published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), feed into everything from Treasury decisions to the Bank of England’s interest rate policy and the government’s “Get Britain Working” agenda.
Yet, our analysis of the Understanding Society survey (2009–2021) shows that this headline figure is overstated. When hours worked in second jobs are considered, the ‘real’ part-time employment rate for women is 2.7 percentage points lower. This means that many women classified as part-time are, in fact, working near or beyond full-time hours, just across multiple jobs.
The Data Gap: What Are We Missing?
There are two key reasons for this underestimation:
- Survey limitations: Traditional labour market surveys often rely on self-reporting and typically ask only about a respondent’s ’main job.’”’.
- Gendered reporting patterns: Women are more likely than men to self-identify as part-time, even when working 35 hours per week — a threshold commonly used to define full-time work.
This mismatch between reported and actual working hours is particularly significant for women, who disproportionately engage in multiple employment. At least 7% of women in the workforce held more than one job during 2009–2021, compared to lower rates among men. This gap reached 2.6 percentage points by 2021–22.
Among self-employed women, multiple employment surged to 21% between 2020–2022 — a likely consequence of the pandemic, with many women adapting to unstable or insufficient hours in their primary roles.
Involuntary Part-Time Work and Labour Insecurity
Part-time employment is often framed as a lifestyle choice — a flexible option for balancing work and caring responsibilities. But for many women, it is far from voluntary. Survey data on preferred working hours from 2021–22 shows:
- 18% of part-time employees wanted more hours.
- 26% of self-employed women wanted to work more hours.
- In contrast, only 4% of full-time employees reported that they wanted to work more hours.
Involuntary part-time work suggests a form of underemployment that is not captured in national statistics on part-time employment.
Mixing Jobs: The Rise of Atypical Employment
A growing number of women are combining employee jobs with self-employment — a trend that overtook male rates in 2018–19. These women compared to women without a second job often:
- Work longer hours (44 per week compared to 33 for those with a single job)
- Earn similar gross monthly incomes (£2,092 vs. £1,977 in 2021–22)
- Face greater job insecurity — with 14.1% in temporary roles (vs. 10.3%)
- Concentrate in caring, leisure, and service sectors
Urbanisation has also shaped this trend. By 2021–22, 77% of women with jobs and self-employment lived in urban areas, up from 71% pre-pandemic. Notably, the proportion of non-White British women in this category nearly doubled between 2018–19 and 2021–22.
For younger women, gig work has emerged as an additional form of employment. 7% of women who mix employee jobs and self-employment work in the gig economy 2019-2021. A relatively high proportion (22%) has a temporary contract in their main job.
Implications for Policy and Practice
This evidence highlights significant shortcomings in how we conceptualise, measure, and respond to women’s employment. It has implications not just for statistical accuracy, but for policy design, economic modelling, and gender equality.
If women’s full economic contributions are being undercounted — and their needs misunderstood — policies built on such data may fail to address labour market inequalities or may even exacerbate them.
Statistics that exclude or misrepresent the experiences of certain groups risk creating blind spots in policymaking. This is particularly true when those statistics are used to design programmes intended to support workforce participation, social mobility, or regional economic growth.
This research is funded by the ADR UK. It is led by Dr Darja Reuschke at the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Prof Tracey Warren and the UK Women’s Budget Group.
This blog was written by Darja Reuschke, Professor of Regional Economic Development, City-REDI, University of Birmingham.
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this analysis post are those of the authors and not necessarily those of City-REDI / WMREDI or the University of Birmingham.