A record 1.1 million working-age people are on zero-hours contracts in the UK, as their main form of employment, according to a study by the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, a think tank.

The analysis suggests 136,000 more workers were given zero-hour contracts in 2023 compared to 2022, and 65% of these new contracts were handed to 16–24-year-olds (88,000).

The data suggested that 73.5% of the record 1.1 million people (aged 16-65) currently on zero-hour contracts in the UK are in ‘severely insecure work’, meaning they face contractual and financial insecurity, and a lack of access to rights and protections. Only 6.1% of the 1.1 million are in secure employment, with a regular income and access to rights, it noted.

According to the think tank, the data suggests that zero-hours contracts disproportionately impact certain workers. It found that Black workers are 2.7 times more likely than white workers to be on zero-hour contracts and workers from multiple/mixed backgrounds are 2.3 times more likely than white workers to be on zero-hour contracts.

Women were found to be 1.2 times more likely to be on zero-hour contracts than men.

At the same time, one in ten young workers in the UK are on these contracts in 2023 (13%). Young workers (aged 16–24) are 5.9 times more likely to be on zero-hour contracts – but these are not just students. Young workers who are not students are still 3.5 times more likely than other age groups to be on zero-hour contracts, the think tank noted.

The Work Foundation also outlined a series of further recommendations for the future use of zero-hour contracts in the UK, to extend contractual security and provide guaranteed hours, while maintaining options for flexibility.

It calls for employers to provide guaranteed contractual hours for all roles (either hours per week, hours per month or annualised hours); employees to be empowered to request a zero-hour contract under a day one flexible working request if their work is genuinely casual in nature. Their contracted hours should be protected and they should be able to reinstate them once the arrangement ceases.

The Foundation also calls for workers who work 25% more than their contracted hours to have a right to an amended contract, if they want it, that reflects their actual hours. Furthermore, employers of people working irregular hours should be required to provide a three-week notice period of their shifts, or with concessions for safety critical industries, ensuring the right to compensation for a cancelled shift if not followed, it recommended.

According to the Foundation, employers with a workforce of 250 or more people should be required to report annually on key employment data, including employment contracts (e.g. full time, part time, zero-hour, agency) and staff turnover, to enable better monitoring of employment practices by government agencies.

Additionally, it calls for labour market enforcement resourcing to be increased and secure work taskforces to be set up with representatives of employers, workers, and regulators in sectors in which insecure work, including zero-hour contracts, are prevalent, to pilot alternative models such as digital self-rostering and bank systems, and negotiated sectoral standards for pay and hours.