UK Labour Market – Women in the workplace decreases

This month’s ONS employment figures showed the number of employed men increased and the number of employed women decreased. Gi Group UK’s CEO, Bev White considers the implications this may have on the skills shortage and the measures businesses can take to redress this balance:

“The number of employed men increased by 29,000 on the quarter to a record high of 17.19 million in the third calendar quarter of 2018 while the number of employed women fell by 6,000 on the quarter to 15.22 million over the same period. And a higher percentage of women were economically inactive. 

“Given these figures and the potential implications of Brexit further contributing to the existing labour shortage, are organisations doing enough to facilitate more people into work? Flexible working, adjusting shift patterns and building hours around school schedules are all measures successfully implemented by many thriving organisations. These steps are certainly the types of activity organisations can look at to enable and encourage those into work that are not able to commit to conventional 9–5 roles.”

Read the full report here https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket