Job adverts failing to advertise flexible options

The rate of job vacancies being posted with the promise of flexible working, has slowed down to pre-pandemic levels, according to Timewise’s annual Flexible Jobs Index.

It analyses nearly 6m UK job ads to see what portion are being offered with part-time and flexible options.

It found just 31% of UK jobs now offer a flexible option when advertised – a 1% increase on last year. This compares to a 9% rise in 2021 and a 4% rise in 2022.

Timewise says 69 per cent make no mention of flex options at all. This compares with the six in 10 UK employees who currently work in flexible jobs and the  87 per cent of people want flex in their next role.

Clare McNeil, Director of Timewise’s Innovation Unit, says: “The volume of job ads offering flexible working options has trebled since 2015. However, since the end of the pandemic this has fallen back to a slow climb up a steep mountain. Just 31% of UK job ads now offer some form of flexible working up front, meaning parents, carers and all those who need flex, have just one third of the UK jobs market to search within. People who want flexible working account the majority. Yet they are treated as if they are the exception. This is indicative of a market failure – and one that shows businesses are perilously out of touch with what employees are looking for, given the grave talent shortages many face.”

The index also finds:

• Part-time  is still largely only advertised as an option for lower-paying jobs, with part-time arrangements more than twice as common in jobs paid £20k-£34k FTE (15%) than those paid £35k-£59k FTE (7%) and three times more common compared to those paid £60k or more (5%). Just 12% of jobs are offered as part time, the same as in 2022.
• Home-working (including hybrid working) tends to be offered in higher salary bands, although only 12% of UK job ads offer remote working options – the same volume as 2022. 7% of job adverts offer hybrid working, compared to 5% last year. A slight increase.
• The Four Day Week – hasn’t translated into recruitment yet
• Sectors offering the highest rates of flexible job vacancies are social services jobs (45 per cent) and health-related roles (38 per cent). However, these are also often sectors with highest levels of insecure work. Hospitality now ranks alongside health and social care as having a higher than average rate of flexible vacancies
• Role categories with rates well below average amounts of advertised flexibility include those in construction (10%), manufacturing (11%), and maintenance/repair (13%).
• The availability of flexible job vacancies is broadly similar across the UK, but with Wales (35%) and the South West (36%) slightly out in front. Northern Ireland (28%), Greater London (29%), Yorkshire & the Humber (30%), the East of England (30%) all have rates slightly below the UK average (31%).

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