The Take-Up and Quality of Part-Time Work Among Men

Abstract

This chapter advances understanding of men’s use of part-time work and the quality of the part-time work they encounter. Using UK data from wave 4 (2012–2013) of Understanding Society, plus extracts from WERS 2011, analysis is conducted to consider the association between part-time work and job quality measures, and wider measures of subjective well-being, notably men’s satisfaction with leisure time and life overall. We find that men working part-time appear to fall into one of three clusters—older men who often report good jobs, high satisfaction, and pay; men (average age of 40), constrained by a complex array of personal, familial, and labour market factors into working in low-quality part-time jobs; and young men who work short hours in low-skilled occupations, receive poor pay, yet do not appear as dissatisfied. These findings demonstrate that men work part-time for a variety of both voluntary and involuntary reasons, not restricted to the career-start and career-end strategies most commonly depicted. In analysing and exposing men’s uptake of part-time work, we reveal certain patterns of disadvantage within male employment that are largely hidden from the mainstream, shrouded by the myth that men, as a group, occupy privileged positions in the labour market. For a proportion of men, part-time work is an unsatisfactory arrangement, borne from not being able to secure full-time work. The insight the chapter offers is likely to be of interest to organisations seeking to recruit and retain part-time workers, especially those operating in sectors where part-time working is an embedded work pattern or a growing phenomenon. The findings support calls for improved quality of part-time jobs for both men and women.