Understanding Women’s Work in the UK: Addressing Gender Data Gaps

New research from the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham suggests official figures may be over-representing the number of women working part-time by failing to account for those who hold more than one job. Between 2009-2021, women’s actual part-time rate, including second jobs, was 2.7 percentage points lower than official figures, highlighting their greater contribution to the UK economy in terms of paid work.

According to official figures, in May-July 2024, 35% of employed women in the UK worked part-time, rising to 52% among self-employed women. There are concerns that headline UK employment figures currently lack reliability. Published by the ONS, these figures influence a wide range of government policies, including the Get Britain Working agenda, and even the Bank of England’s decisions on interest rates. If the data informing them is inaccurate, it could result in ineffective policies and exacerbate social inequalities.

New research from the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham suggests that low survey response rates and self-reporting are only part of the problem. Gender inequalities in atypical employment are poorly understood. The problem may not be just that we aren’t receiving enough responses, but also that we aren’t asking the right questions.

To address this gap, the researchers focused on ’multiple employment’, where individuals hold more than one job — a practice more common among women than men. They calculated a new, more accurate part-time employment rate for women by adding hours worked in a second job to those in the main job. They found that women’s actual part-time rate, including second jobs, was 2.7 percentage points lower than official figures. This more accurately reflects women’s working lives and their contribution to the UK economy in terms of paid hours worked.

Gap between women’s ‘conventional’ and ‘actual’ part-time employment rates, by employment status and in total

Women in Multiple Employment

Official statistics may have consistently skewed women’s rates of part-time work by self-reporting and by failing to account for multiple jobs.

Employment figures may be skewed by self-reporting, as women are more likely than men to classify themselves as part-time even when working 35 hours, which is considered full-time. According to the researchers, official statistics also fail to account for multiple jobs, distorting true working hours.

Since 2009/10, at least 7% of the female workforce had more than one job meaning that a not negligible proportion of women worked more hours than is included in official figures of women’s working hours. Women have consistently had higher rates of multiple employment than men, with a gender gap reaching 2.6 percentage points in 2021-22. Rates among self-employed women surged to 21% between 2020-2022, likely due to pandemic disruptions.

Multiple employment rates of women and men by employment status in main job

Involuntary Part-Time Work

Women’s part-time employment is not only about work-life balance. Part-time work also means for some women, particularly when self-employed, that they cannot find employment that offers enough working hours.

Multiple employment is especially common among women working fewer than 30 hours a week in their main job. Survey data from 2021-22 also shows that 18% of part-time employees and 26% of self-employed women wanted more hours, compared to just 4% of full-time employees, highlighting the prevalence of involuntary part-time work.

Mixing an employee job with Self-Employment

Women who mix employee jobs with self-employment tend to work longer hours (44 hours weekly compared to 33 hours for women with only one job) for comparable total incomes (£2,092 vs. £1,977 gross monthly in 2021-22).

Since 2018-19, women have overtaken men in mixing employment types. It is now a relevant form of atypical working of women in the UK. Women are also more likely than men to transition from being self-employed only to mixing self-employment with an employee job, most likely reflecting insecurity in their self-employed work.

Women in mixed employment tend to work longer hours (44 hours weekly compared to 33 for those with only one job) for comparable total incomes (£2,092 vs. £1,977 gross monthly in 2021-22). They often face greater job insecurity, with a higher proportion in temporary roles (14.1% vs. 10.3%) and concentrated in caring, leisure, and service sectors.

Proportion of female and male workers aged 16-64 who mix employee jobs with self-employment

The pandemic further influenced occupational trends and urban concentration, with 77% of women in mixed employment residing in urban areas by 2021-22, up from 71% pre-pandemic. Additionally, the share of non-White British women in mixed employment increased from 6% in 2018-19 to 11.4%. Women with mixed employment are now more likely to have dependent children, most likely reflecting the rise of multiple employment among self-employed women with younger families.

Gig Working

Gig work among women is associated with greater job insecurity and lower income.

Women are more likely than men to combine gig work with a secure, permanent job. Women engaged in gig work were generally younger (average age 39.4 years) compared to the female workforce (average age of 43 years).

Gig work among women is associated with greater job insecurity and lower income. Temporary roles were more common in the gig economy (22%) compared to non-gig workers (9%). Labour income was also lower for gig workers (£1,403 from their main job and £1,557 including second jobs) compared to the average earnings of women (£1,977 from the main job and £2,092 including second jobs). However, gig workers averaged fewer weekly hours than other women with multiple employment (34.6 vs. 45.5 hours). This highlights the precarious nature of gig work for women, with lower earnings and fewer hours but increased job insecurity.

Data that includes everyone

In summary, multiple employment is a growing and underexamined form of atypical work, driven by insufficient hours in main jobs. Between 2009-2021, women’s actual part-time rate, including second jobs, was 2.7 percentage points lower than official figures, highlighting their greater contribution to the UK economy. Women who mix employee jobs with self-employment often face high working hours, reduced labour rights, and are more likely to take up such roles due to self-employment insecurity. Younger women are more likely to work in the gig economy, a smaller segment of atypical work, with temporary jobs and low earnings being more common there. Strengthening all workers’ rights is vital to protect women in less secure and temporary jobs.

Beyond addressing gender data gaps in paid work, this research offers a broader lesson: to ensure that official statistics reflect a shifting labour market, we must ask the right questions. Bias in quantitative data can arise from what is left out as well as what is included. At the Women’s Budget Group, we see this time and again in our capacity building workshops with local groups – women who cannot find themselves or their situations reflected by the data we’re training them to analyse. Statistics that exclude certain groups risk driving policy that widens inequalities. To create fair and equal policies, we need data that includes everyone.

This research is part of a wider project headed by Dr Darja Reuschke at the University of Birmingham funded by the ADR UK, of which WBG is a project partner. Look out for further insights as the research progresses.