Four-day working week in public sector ‘could create up to 500k new UK jobs’

A four-day week in the public sector could create hundreds of thousands of jobs and reduce the costs of burnout, according to a new report.

The report by think tank Autonomy says a shorter working week in the public sector (with no loss in pay) could address work-related poor mental health and bad work-life balance and could create between 300,000 and 500,000 new full-time equivalent jobs in the sector.

It adds that a 32-hour working week would benefit regions that have felt the hardship of austerity most due to the impact of new jobs that would be created.

The think tank says the policy “is eminently affordable and achievable”. It says it could cost around £9bn, although the true figure could be much lower at around £5.4bn due to savings made elsewhere. The £9bn figure is equivalent to 6% of the public sector employment salary bill and just over 1% of the total government spending budget.

The think tank also says that the public sector could act as a catalyst for greater change across the workforce.

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