Losing overtime to cut capacity

Here is another example of how firms are cutting capacity during the recession without making their staff redundant. The TUC report that, although four million workers do still work extra paid hours, over half a million people have lost the opportunity to work overtime in the last year. The average amount of weekly overtime last year worked out at almost £3,000 a year per employee, a total of £10 billion. However this is down by £1 billion on last year, representing a loss of income of hundreds of pounds per month for those employees for whom it is no longer available. Workers aged 20-24 have experienced the sharpest fall in overtime: in 2008, 20.1% of young people earned overtime pay, compared with 15.9 per cent this year.

Workers in manufacturing, transport and communication, industries that traditionally offered overtime, were hit by a sharp fall in extra hours over the past year. In this video report from the BBC looks at one company in Bristol which was faced with the need to cut costs and offered staff the option of either cutting overtime for all of them, or making some of them redundant. They agreed to take the first option, but are having to cut their discretionary spending, and so their living standards, as a result.

Unit 1 Micro: Can the UK Computer Games Industry Grow [24 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Money, Debt and the New World Order [22 Jan 2012]
France and Flexible Employment [22 Jan 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Can a minimum wage create jobs? [16 Jan 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: World’s Largest Solar Plant Opens [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Economics of Fiscal Deficit Reduction [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Freakonomics [9 Jan 2012]
2011 in Review - The US Economy [27 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: The Rise in Self Employment [17 Dec 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Does UK Manufacturing have a Future? [30 Nov 2011]
Behavioural Economics: Herd Behaviour [28 Nov 2011]
Where is the UK Economy? National Output [22 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Video Clips on Unemployment [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Impulses to Change Management Models [5 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Time of Use Pricing for Energy [2 Nov 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Should TNCs make full disclosure on factory wages? [30 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Drop Box and Freemium [18 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [14 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
UK Unemployment in October 2011 [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: UK suffers a weak recovery [12 Oct 2011]
Why Is Macroeconomics Such A Mess? [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monospony Power and Low Wages in Care Homes [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tube Drivers set to earn £50,000 a year [3 Oct 2011]
NMW: Classical real-wage unemployment [3 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Greek Economy at Default’s Door [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Fixed and Variable Costs [18 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Growth and Inequality [14 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Income and Wealth in the UK [12 Sep 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
Mixing with the Nobel Economists [4 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Baltic Dry Index and Global Weakening [19 Aug 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: GDP per person since the credit crunch [19 Aug 2011]
What might happen on August 2nd? [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Motorsport Valley and External Economies of Scale [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [25 May 2011]
AQA Macro: Remember to revise inflation [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Demand Pull Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Cost Push Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Inflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Trend Growth [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Economic Recovery [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Spare Capacity [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: The Output Gap [23 May 2011]
Revision notes on unemployment [22 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Oligopoly and Collusion [20 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: High and Low Marginal Cost Products [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation and Economic Policies [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Ownership and Control in Modern Businesses [18 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation in Markets [4 May 2011]
AS Micro: Government Failure in Wind Farms [4 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: EU Aviation - State Aid and State Ownership [28 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Importance of Elasticity of Supply [23 Apr 2011]
Rise in investment could kick start recovery [18 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Costs and Profits [16 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Back to Roubini - a Year On! [11 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Real Disposable Income [11 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Prices for New and Second Hand Cars [9 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Double-Dip Recession [8 Apr 2011]
UK Minimum Wage rises by 2.5% in October 2011 [8 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Under-employment [7 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Fiscal Austerity [6 Apr 2011]
Focus on Poland [5 Apr 2011]
Tracking the effects of the recession on GDP [5 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Expansionary Monetary Policy [4 Apr 2011]
Information Failures: Tesco and Second Hand Cars [3 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Unemployment in the US Economy [1 Apr 2011]
The Scale of Remittances [1 Apr 2011]
The New North - Population Shift [23 Mar 2011]
Focus on Spain [16 Mar 2011]
AS Macro Revision: Investment Spending [12 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Part Time Working in the UK [11 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Total Employment in the UK Economy [10 Mar 2011]
Ireland - Mass Unemployment and Shrinking GDP [10 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Income Tax and VAT Revenues [8 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Research and Development in the UK [7 Mar 2011]
A virtuous circle of recovery - Paul Krugman [6 Mar 2011]
Timetric: Regional Unemployment in the UK [4 Mar 2011]
EU Economics: Germany leads Euro Zone revival [25 Feb 2011]
EU Economics - Life at the jagged edge of the Euro Zone [20 Feb 2011]

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