Nearly a quarter of full-time workers struggling to make ends meet – CSO

Nearly a quarter of people in full-time employment are struggling to meet the cost of living, while part-time workers find it nearly twice as hard to make ends meet, according to new research from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The second instalment of the CSO’s Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey 2021, which focuses on job and life satisfaction and barriers to work, reveals 26.3 per cent of all workers find it hard to make ends meet and more than six per cent struggle “with difficulty or great difficulty” to do so.

More than 40 per cent of part-time workers struggle to make ends meet while 22.6 per cent of full time workers also find it difficult, according to the research carried out in late 2021.

For those without work, poor health was cited as the most common barrier to returning to the workforce. Nearly 30 per cent of people trying to find work said bad health made finding employment more difficult. Nearly 13 per cent said caring duties for a family member or friend was stopping them re-entering the labour market, while more than 10 per cent cited childcare issues as the main barrier.

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More than a third of people without employment, and who were also struggling to make ends meet, were found to have “long standing health problems”.

However, more than one in five respondents currently not working said there was no barrier preventing them from returning to work.

Job satisfaction

For those in employment, nearly nine out of 10 said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their job. Some 11 per cent said they were “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with their work.

Even though many employees who were satisfied with their jobs reported working long hours, more people who were dissatisfied with work experienced long hours. Nearly half of workers unhappy with their employment had to work more than their formal hours to get the job done, compared to 40 per cent of employees who said they were satisfied with their job.

Temporary or part-time workers who had only been with their employer for a short period were far more likely to leave their job in the next six months when compared to permanent staff. Meanwhile, full-time workers with long service were more likely to turn down an offer of a better paid job elsewhere, when compared to part-time workers with similar service or full and part time workers who had spent less time with a company.

The CSO study, which was carried out when Covid-19 restrictions were still in place, found that 58 per cent of people who were “dissatisfied with life” also struggled to make ends meet. However, overall, almost nine out of 10 people reported being “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their life as a whole.

Support from family, friends and neighbours was found to be key to overall life satisfaction - more than one third of people who get no support or help from family were dissatisfied with their life. This compares to the more than 93 per cent of people who did have support and said they were satisfied with life.