Short-Time Working

Mr. Hoyle
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent estimate he has made of the number of (a) businesses that are operating short-time working practices and (b) people on short-time working.

Mr. McFadden
The information is as follows:

(a) Data on businesses that are operating short-time working practices are not centrally collected because businesses do not have to inform Government of changes in their terms and conditions of employment.

(b) Estimates of the number of people on short-time working can be made from the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey. In Quarter 4 (October to December) 2008 around 60 thousand UK employees are estimated to be on short-time working practices. This represents 0.2 per cent. of all UK employees.

This estimate defines short-time working as the number of employees whose actual hours worked, when surveyed, were fewer than their usual hours worked due to economic causes.