Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reported yesterday that British workers in 1952 were less stressed than they are currently, although much poorer! Thanks to an inflow of women since 1952 the workforce in the UK has increased by six million. The total number of hours worked, however stayed the same due to a big rise in part-time working. Despite average working hours decreasing, work related stress has grown significantly.
One possible explanation for this may be constantly increasing unemployment. It has risen from 2.2 per cent in 1952, to 5.5 per cent of the workforce according to the more recent figures. Even more concerning is the fact that number of households where nobody earns increased from 4% to 18.8%. As Dr John Philpott, CIPD chief economic advisor, explains ‘With the threat of unemployment an underlying concern even in good times, people do not seem much happier about their working lives.’This change was caused by the transformation in the way we work. Nowadays, only 75% of men are employed, compared to 96% in 1952. On the other hand, the number of women in employment has increased from 46% to 66%. Therefore, the number of households with two earners has also risen which in turn left more households with no breadwinners.
On a more positive note productivity of the workforce has increased dramatically over the last 60 years. Despite the total number of hours worked remaining the same the value of the goods and services produced has quadrupled. However, that has also led to great differences and inequalities in pay as well as type of work carried out. The number of people in managerial, professional and technical jobs has nearly doubled whereas the number of people in manufacturing jobs fell from 8.7 million in 1952 to just 2.5 million today.
Also see : STRESS!!! … how to deal with it?
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