Part-time work remains high

The number of people - particularly women - entering the jobs market to take up part-time work remains very high. This is the clearest result from the first quarterly Central Statistics Office (CSO) household survey.

Interpreting the first survey of its kind is not easy. This is because the CSO has changed the way it asks householders some questions, while seasonal factors also affected the figures.

The figures showed that 1,472,300 were "in employment" in the September to November period when the survey was taken, while 171,600 people were qualified as unemployed.

This brings the total labour force - the sum of those in work and unemployed but looking for work - to 1.643.9 million, some 100,000 higher than the figure the last time the count was made in April of last year. But much of the rise is due to the new method of asking questions and to seasonal factors.

Excluding these factors, the CSO estimates the "underlying" increase in the labour force was 30,000 to 40,000 over the six months. This suggests that the total number of people in work may have increased by up to 30,000. If this were sustained in the second six months it would yield an annual increase of 60,000, up from 50,000 in the year to April, 1997.

The method of collecting the figures has also led to a higher proportion of the workforce being counted as working part-time. But even allowing for this, the figures indicate that the bulk of new employment is part-time, that the strongest growth is in the services sector and that many of the new jobs are being filled by women.