Part-time work in the service sector

Summary

Atypical work such as part-time and temporary work has grown in importance in the Finnish labour market. Part-time work is strongly concentrated in the service sector, which employs over 80 percent of all part-time workers. This study sheds light on part-time work from the perspective of employee and employer side in retail trade, hotels and restaurants, real estate maintenance and cleaning, and guard service. The study utilises data from a survey which was carried out in these four service sectors. In addition, in the analysis labour force survey data from Statistics Finland is utilised.

A majority of part-time workers in these service sectors are women (exception guard sector) and young people under 30 years of age. In retail trade and real estate maintenance and cleaning around 80 per cent of part-time workers have permanent employment contracts. In hotels and restaurants and in guard sector the share of part-timers with permanent contracts is considerably lower (57,1%and 45,8%).

According to the statistical analyses, women and young people have greater probability to work as part-timers. Level of education also influences this probability. Those with only a basic level of education have over two times higher probability to work as part-time employees compared to those with a higher level of education. Temporary and on-call workers also have a higher probability to work as part-timers than permanent workers do. In addition, sector and size of the firm has impact on the propensity to work part-time.

From a part-time worker’s point of view there is a big difference whether or not the part-time work is voluntary or involuntary due to the lack of full-time job. In retail trade and in hotels and restaurants as much as over half of part-timers work part-time because they could not have a full-time job. In real estate maintenance and cleaning, and guard sector studying is the most common reason for part-time work. The proportion of involuntary part-timers is greater among women and workers over 24 years of age.

Diversification of working time is greater for part-time workers than for full-time workers. A considerable share of part-timers (25,2–52,8%) would prefer to work longer hours than employers offer them. Many part-timers would also prefer to have the same job as a full-timer.

Due to shorter working hours part-timers’ monthly salaries are on average lower than full-timers’ monthly salaries. The share of part-timers earning at most 1000 euros a month is very large (34,5–63%). It is also more common for part-timers than for full-timers to have other sources of income in addition to salary (even excluding students). Among part-timers the share of those having other sources of income ranged from around one third to over 70 per cent in these four service sectors. The most common other source of income was a study grant and the second most common was part-time pay supplement.

As far as job satisfaction and physical and mental strenuousness of work are considered the study did not reveal any large differences between part-time and full-time workers. The greatest differences were found in the way people assessed their opportunities to develop themselves in work and to be promoted. Part-timers perceived that in these respects their opportunities were weaker than what full-timers did. Likewise, part-timers considered that they had weaker opportunities to influence their work than what full-timers did (hotels and restaurants was an exception).

In these four service sectors a larger share of part-timers than that of full-timers had looked for a new job. Hopes of a better salary, of better opportunities to develop oneself in work, and of better promotion opportunities influenced this. According to the statistical analysis, those workers who considered that they had weaker opportunities to develop themselves in work and who considered that their promotion opportunities were slim had a higher probability to look for a new job than those workers who considered that their opportunities were in these respects good.

The purpose of the employer survey was to find out the most important reasons for the demand and use of part-timers, and to study part-time and full-time work from the perspective of employers. The most important reasons for the use of part-time work differed between these four service sectors. In retail trade longer opening hours, variation of work load over the day and week, and profitability/cost reasons were the three most important reasons. Likewise, in hotels and restaurants profitability/cost reasons and variation of work load over the day and season were named as the most important reasons. In real estate maintenance and cleaning and guard service, customers’ needs and nature of the activity belonged to the three most important reasons. In real estate maintenance and cleaning, workers’ own wishes and in guard sector the availability of part-time workers were also important reasons for the use of part-time work.

According to the employer survey, part-timers and full-timers have mainly the same tasks although employers were of the opinion that the part-time nature of work limits the use of part-timers in some tasks (excluding guard sector). Predominantly, the employer side disagreed with the notion that part-timers are more productive than full-timers.

A majority (68,7–85,8%) of firms in retail trade, hotels and restaurants, and guard sector were of the opinion that use of part-timers has not increased their costs for workforce and administration. However, in real estate maintenance and cleaning, where turnover of part-timers was regarded as a more common problem than in the other three service sectors, nearly half of the firms saw that use of part-time work had increased these costs.

In general, part-timers’ and full-timers’ professional skills were considered to correspond the needs of firms rather well. This appraisal was somewhat more positive for full-time workers. A notable majority was of the opinion that part-timers’ and full-timers’ professional skills are of the same level. The share of those respondents who considered that part-timers’ professional skills were worse than those of full-timers ranged from one third to around 40 percent apart from real estate maintenance and cleaning, where almost 40 percent of the respondents considered that part-timers’ professional skills were better than those of full-timers.

It emerges from the survey that turnover of part-time labour force is greater than that of full-time labour force. This was regarded somewhat problematic. In particular, it is a problem in real estate maintenance and cleaning, where turnover of part-time workers is higher and where recruitment of skilled workers was considered more difficult than in the other service industries.

As to workers’ motivation, the firms did not see any major differences between part-timers and full-timers apart from real estate maintenance and cleaning. Instead, a greater variation was found in the employers’ appraisal of part-timers’ commitment to firms. Part-timers’ commitment was assessed to be either of the same level or worse than that of full-timers.

• ISSN:1236-7176
• ISBN: 952-5071-81-2
• Press Release in Finnish
• Publication in PDF-format