Part-time jobs manifesto

This Assembly notes the Mayor’s 2012 manifesto commitment to “lead a campaign for 20,000 part-time jobs to help parents return to work”. The Assembly’s Economy Committee found that despite having a highly-qualified female workforce, the rate of maternal employment in London is the lowest in the country and that the lack of flexible working arrangements, in jobs across the income spectrum, is partly the cause.

This Assembly would welcome a drive by the Mayor to specifically create part-time jobs with a view to enabling parents to balance work with caring responsibilities. However the Assembly is concerned that instead of measuring how many part-time jobs the Mayor has created, he is merely estimating the number of part-time jobs created by applying the general rate of part-time employment in London to the number of jobs created via GLA programmes. The Assembly does not believe this is an accurate or reliable measure of the Mayor’s manifesto commitment to create 20,000 part-time jobs to help parents return to work.

The Assembly therefore calls on the Mayor to come forward with a clear proposal and timetable for his campaign to create part-time positions and to directly and transparently monitor his progress, so that parents can be helped back into the workforce and so that Londoners can understand whether or not the Mayor has delivered his manifesto commitment.