Part-time Employment: Females

Steve Webb
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many women were working part-time in (a) 1979 and (b) 2006; and how many of these were earning below the lower earnings limit for national insurance contributions in each period.

James Purnell
[holding answer 26 February 2007]: The Labour Force Survey (LFS) uses self-classification to determine full or part time employment status. The LFS for spring 2006 shows 4.6 million part-time female employees. The survey records 1.5 million part-time female employees earning less than £84 per week. Results for spring 1979 show 3.4 million part-time female employees, but no information on earnings was collected in 1979.