Are zero-hours contracts on the way out or not?

The government has pledged to ban zero-hours contracts next year, but nevertheless, the number of people on them is continuing to soar.

A zero-hours contract is an employment contract that doesn’t guarantee a minimum number of working hours.

This means there’s a risk that your hours might drop unexpectedly and without warning, and your.

So you could go very suddenly from having almost a full time wage to having no pay.

This kind of contract also very often involves working different hours each week, so it can be hard for people to plan their schedules.

With a ban just around the corner, you might think employers would be looking at phasing them out.

But it seems like the opposite is happening.

Number of people on zero-hours contracts at record high

The number of people on zero-hours contracts stood at 1.23m in December.

And according to the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, that’s 91,000 higher than it was a year earlier.

This, it says, has been driven by young workers aged 16 to 24 and workers not in full-time education.

In fact, 16 to 24-year-olds are 5.1 times more likely to be on zero-hour contracts.

Figures also showed that women are more likely to be on zero-hours contracts than men (54% vs 46%).

“Some employers continue to rely on highly precarious forms of employment such as zero-hour contracts, despite the government’s commitment to kerb their use,” said director Ben Harrison.

“Such arrangements underpin the kind of ‘one-sided flexibility’ that leaves over a million workers unsure how many hours they will work or how much money they will earn next week.”

What’s the government doing about it?

Under the upcoming law, all workers, including agency workers, will be able to access a contract that reflects their regular working hours.

People will also be entitled to what the government considers "reasonable notice" of their schedules and compensation for shifts cancelled with short notice.