Flex Appeal: Four in 10 People Considering Temporary Work – REC

More than one in three people (36 percent) in Great Britain has worked as a contractor, freelancer or agency worker at some point in their career and 41 percent are considering working that way in the future, ‘Flex appeal: Why freelancers, contractors and agency workers choose to work this way’, a new report published by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) today.

 

A survey of 4,234 adults (conducted by YouGov) finds that:

• one in four (24 percent) has been a temporary agency worker,
• one in ten (10 percent) has worked as a contractor,
• one in ten (11 percent) has worked as a freelancer.

Addressing career and earning potential the report says:

• 40 percent of people who currently earn £30,000 or more have worked as an agency worker, contractor or freelancer,
• 22 percent of people who currently earn more than £50,000 have been agency workers,
• 36 percent of people who currently have hiring responsibilities at work have been an agency worker themselves.

 

REC chief executive Kevin Green says:

“Working as a contractor, freelancer or agency worker is a choice for many people, and flexibility is a key reason they opt for this kind of work. Flexible working especially appeals to young people, parents and people scaling back as they approach retirement. 

 

“Sometimes temporary work is looked down on as a second rate or a dead-end career choice. But if you talk to people who work this way, they value being able to fit work around their family commitments, can earn more, or are using temporary assignments to pick up specific skills and experience they couldn’t get elsewhere.

 

“We need to do more to support people who want a better work life balance, not penalise them. That’s why we want employers to do more to treat their temporary staff like the rest of their workforce, with better communication from managers and access to training. 

 

“The government must simplify the tax system to ensure temporary workers are not caught out by complex rules. They should also require banks to be more accommodating of applications for mortgages from these customers so people aren’t disadvantaged by working flexibly.”

 

Ends

 

Notes to editors:

 

1. The full report ‘Flex appeal: why freelancers, contractors and agency workers choose to work this way’ is free to download from www.rec.uk.com/flexappeal. Also online are six videos in which agency nurses, office professionals and an IT contractor share their stories.

 

2. Data comes from YouGov omnibus survey, with total sample size of 4,234 adults, conducted online from 22nd-24th April 2014. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all British adults aged 18+. The figure “36% of people who currently have hiring responsibilities at work have been an agency worker themselves” comes from a question posed to 220 employers in the REC’s JobsOutlook survey in April 2014. The report also includes information from focus groups held with temporary workers in the office professionals (London), nursing (Cardiff) and driving (Walsall) sectors and phone interviews with IT contractors around the country.