Women embrace long-hours culture as men bow out

 

By BECKY BARROW - More by this author » Last updated at 10:17am on 18th January 2007 Comments (8)

Women are choosing to work longer hours

 

 

 

Women are working longer hours than at any time since records began, according to recently released figures.

At the same time the number of men spending long days at the office has fallen by a fifth.

 

 

The figures - from the Office for National Statistics - reflect a sea-change in British society.

Increasing numbers of women are taking on high-powered jobs while their partners "downshift" or become house-husbands.

In 1992, when records were first collected, 7.8 per cent of women were working at least 45 hours a week. That figure had risen in 2006 to 9.1 per cent, or one in 11.

In stark contrast the equivalent figure for men has gone down, from 33.4 per cent to 27.5 per cent.

Nearly 200,000 men now stay at home to look after the children, with their wives becoming the main breadwinners.

Sky-high property prices - the average new mortgage is £142,000 - have also forced some women to focus on their careers rather than families.

Jill Kirby, of the Centre for Policies Studies think-tank, said: "The question is how many women are working long hours out of choice, or is it because they are driven by economic necessity?"

About 3.3million workers put in more than 48 hours a week, according to the Trades Union Congress.

Its General Secretary Brendan Barber said Britain is "gripped by a long hours culture".

He said employees were damaging their health often for little financial benefit.

Karen Gill, of Everywoman, a business support group, said many women were taking advantage of flexible hours.

"We polled over 1,000 of our members last year, and we found that over 90 per cent were working longer hours than your average working week," she said.

'However, they were dictating when and where they worked them. Many of these hours were worked around taking their kids to school, going to the gym and other such activities."

The official figures also showed that the working week is the shortest since records began. On average, men and women working part-time, full-time or flexible hours put in 31.9 hours a week. By comparison, male manual workers in 1958 did 48.5 hours a week.

Experts say this change reflects the rise of flexible working and compressed hours - where, for example, staff squeeze a five-day week into a four-day one.

The Department of Trade and Industry estimates that about 5.4million workers, 2.2million of them men, have flexible hours.

More than 90 per cent of all requests to work flexibly are agreed, according to research by the business lobby group CBI.

The ONS said the workforce stands at a record 29million people, the highest figure since 1971.

It said unemployment fell to 1.67 million in November with the number claiming the jobseeker's allowance dipping to 943,000.

However the number of adults deemed "economically inactive" rose to 7.9million - or one in five. These include students and carers.

Tory work and pensions spokesman Philip Hammond said: "For all of Labour's claims about economic success, these figures show that there is still an enormous amount of talent in this country going to waste."

An estimated 1.2 million pensioners are still working, the ONS figures show. It is the highest number recorded and comes at a time of growing fears about the level of financial provision in retirement.

Since 2004, about 200,000 pensioners have joined the workforce.

For many, their small - or nonexistent - pensions and savings meant they had no choice but to delay their retirement.

The basic state pension at £84.25 is the meanest in Europe when compared with average salaries, according to consultants Aon.

women are stupid.