NEW figures have revealed the dramatic spread of low-paid and casual work across the North-East since the financial crash of 2008.

The TUC report estimates there are 52,000 people in the region employed on zero hours contracts, which mean employees work only when they are needed by employers, often at short notice.

In 2008, one in 20 men and one in 16 women were employed on a casual basis in Britain, whereas now, one in 12 of both men and women are in precarious employment, which includes zero-hours contracts, agency work, variable hours and fixed-term contracts, according to the TUC.

According to the analysis, in 2008 there were 655,000 men in the casualised labour market. That number has risen by 61.8 per cent to 1.06 million. The casualised female workforce has increased by 35.6 per cent, from 795,000 in 2008 to 1.08 million in 2014.

The TUC is also publishing research showing that since 2008, only one in 40 new jobs has been full-time. Over the same period, 60 per cent of net jobs added have been self-employed and 36 per cent have been part-time.

Employers argue that casual work often leads to a permanent post. According to the Work Foundation, however, only 44 per cent of zero-hours contract jobs last for two years or more and 25 per cent have lasted for five years or more. A survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development estimated that there are more than a million zero-hours contract workers – 3.1 per cent of the UK workforce – four times the estimate of the Office for National Statistics in 2012.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, has proposed that those on zero-hours contracts should have the right to request a fixed-term contract. Labour has proposed that an employee on a zero hours contract has the right to request permanent work after 12 months.

“For many women, ‘flexibility’ has become synonymous with being at the beck and call of employers,” said the TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady. “Job insecurity isn’t just something that affects women in industries like retail and social care; it is a problem across the labour market.”