Britain moving towards 24-hour working culture

Britain will move to a 24-hour culture in the next millennium with the familiar nine-to-five routine disappearing, according to a new report.

The growth of part-time, temporary and contract work means that more people will be working different shift patterns, Paul Hershey, senior financial analyst with Mintel, the retail analysts, said.

The signs are already here with the success of First Direct's 24-hour telephone banking and branches of Tesco opening 12 hours a day. "People will be working outside the nine-to five existence as we know it," said Mr Hershey. "There has been a massive growth in temporary and contract workers. There will be more work in early evenings and early mornings as the economy shifts to a 24-hour day ... Trains and buses will have to operate on a 24 hour timetable and all areas of working life will be affected."

In the next millennium there will be an increase in jobs for managers and administrators - particularly in service industries and retailing. Those on the way out are clerical and secretarial jobs, as workers use their own computers. While knowledge of information technology will be crucial for employment chances, by the turn of the century only one in three households will own a computer.

Demographically the workforce will be changing rapidly as the population ages. From 1995-2010 there will be a 28 per cent rise in 55 to 64-year- olds, and a 22 per cent fall in 25 to 34-year-olds. The growth in part- time work means that conventional retirement as we understand it will also disappear.

"The flexible workforce will have to adapt to a different working environment," said Mr Hershey. "The over 50s will find they are being courted for their experience and expertise. People may well be doing some sort of work until they enter a nursing home."

But while 70 per cent say they prefer being part of a flexible workforce, managing their own timetable, depression and insecurity continues to dog the worker in the "nervous Nineties". Four out of five workers believe that a job-for-life no longer exists and a growing number now believes job security is more important than money. And the percentage who are happy with their standard of living in 1995 compared with 1990 has dropped 10 percentage points.

Two-fifths of full-time workers claim the number of hours they work is affecting their social and family life. Exceptions are young people aged 15 to 24, those over 55 and people living in the South-west and Wales.

Health is the greatest worry for adults (61 per cent), with just under half concerned about their finances and one in five fearing redundancy. When asked whether future worries are affecting present lifestyles one- third of adults agreed. "This suggests that the public is slowly recognising that economic risk is shifting away from the state and company to the individual," Mr Hershey said.