Despite a seismic change in how we're working, and 13 million employees wanting to keep flexing, only 22% of jobs were advertised as flexible between July and September, our new Flexible Jobs Index shows. What will it take to shift the dial?
When we set out to create this year’s Flexible Jobs Index, we were pretty sure we’d see a major, pandemic-fuelled shift. There were huge increases in the number of people working from home, as well as a consensus that some of the traditional barriers to flex were falling in the face of necessity. And article after article suggested that employees wanted to continue flexing when the pandemic was eventually over.
It’s for this reason that we split the reporting for this year’s index into three periods; pre-Covid, the first national lockdown, and the first three months of lockdown easing. We recognised that the jobs market has contracted significantly as a result of the pandemic, but we nevertheless expected a bigger proportion of flexibly advertised jobs, and wanted to track the change through all three stages.
So we were disappointed, to say the least, to discover that the gap between the recruitment market and the employment market for flexible jobs grew wider still. The number of people working remotely shot up from 6% before the pandemic to 43% mid-Spring, and settled at 37% by June. But, as our index shows, the proportion of flexibly advertised jobs only rose from 17% before the pandemic to 22% during and since lockdown (with home-working roles representing about one third of those jobs).
To make matters worse, many of the newly created home-based jobs are likely to revert to the workplace as soon as is feasible. And there has been very little movement in the availability of other forms of flexible working, such as part-time and flexible hours.
This matters, a lot, and on many levels. Firstly, the pandemic has decimated the overall jobs market; it halved during lockdown, and was only up to two-thirds of the pre-pandemic level by the end of September. There are more job losses to come, once the furlough scheme finally ends, and more people will be struggling to keep the jobs they have, or find new ones.
And unfortunately, flexible workers will probably be some of the hardest hit, as they are more likely to have additional, complex challenges (such as caring commitments, or health issues) or to work in disappearing frontline jobs (such as retail or hospitality). As a result, they are at a higher risk of falling out of the workplace than their non-flex counterparts.
The knock-on effect of all of this is that the brunt of the pandemic-induced economic crisis is being borne by low-paid workers, and particularly by women. The Resolution Foundation has shown that one third of those in the lowest-paid quartile (who are disproportionately likely to work part-time) have lost their jobs, been furloughed, or lost hours and pay, compared to 15% of the highest paid.
Indeed, at the time of writing, data from LinkedIn has revealed that the percentage of women hired during the lockdown fell, while the percentage of men being hired increased. It also indicated that women over the age of 30 were least likely of all to be hired.
Clearly, then, the economic impact of the pandemic has been devastating, and is likely to continue to be so for some time to come. But alongside the challenges, there is an opportunity, as we rebuild the economy, to create a more level playing field for those who do and don’t need to flex.
Employers can’t wave a magic wand and create jobs that aren’t viable within the current market. But what they can do, and must do, is make sure that any vacancies they do have incorporate as much flexibility as possible, and are advertised as such. If they don’t, there’s a risk that the people who need to work part-time, or from home, or with staggered start and finish times, will be ‘flexcluded’ from the workplace, both now and well into next year.
And yes, we recognise that it’s a tough time for employers as well as employees. But for the sake of fairness, and to support the people who need it most, as well as ensuring businesses don’t miss out on the right talent, we must keep working towards a flexible jobs market. Let’s hope that, by next year’s index, we’ve managed to shift the dial.
Published December 2020
