End of the nine-to-five job as gig economy booms

A BOOMING gig economy has spelled the death knell for traditional nine-tofive jobs, with fewer than half of workers globally regularly working eight-hour days.

The number choosing to take on flexible work, such as delivering takeaways or driving taxis, has tipped the balance in the global workforce, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) said.

According to the Un-backed group, more than a third are logging more than 48 hours per week in work. A fifth are working less than 35 hours per week. The ILO said this was driven by informal economy workers with companies such as Deliveroo, Uber and Amazon’s delivery arm Flex, where people can choose to log on or off depending on whether they want to carry on earning.

The ILO cited the UK as an example of a country where there had been a significant jump in numbers of on-call contracts since the global recession.

The report said: “Researchers linked this type of working-time arrangement with anxiety and insecurity due to constant employment instability.”

Globally, 31.1pc of employees were working more than 48 hours per week regularly, but among the self-employed this rose to 44.4pc.

At the same time, 15pc of all workers were regularly working fewer than 35 hours per week, whereas this figure hit 26.9pc among the self-employed.

More than 70 companies across the UK are trialling four-day weeks as part of a nationwide pilot scheme that could transform working life in Britain.

About 49pc of companies said productivity had improved, while 46pc said productivity was the same.