The numbers of unemployed workers are back down to the sort of levels that we experienced before Covid-19 struck and the number of vacancies is at an all-time high.Nevertheless, before the pandemic we also had record levels of employment too. Now however, we have about a million fewer workers at work. If we accept rough estimates that some 500,000 Europeans have returned to the continent, then that leaves us struggling to explain why half a million people have become economically inactive.Is it that the experience of lock-down and furlough have left them disinclined to return to the stress of the workplace and that they place a higher value on their time away from it?Might a shorter working week tempt them back to work?The demand for a shorter working week with no loss of pay has been on the agenda of the political left for some time. Most people recognise however, that it is economic suicide unless accompanied by greater productivity in the worked hours to compensate.A shorter working week will not suit many enterprises: Most of us will have experienced the frustration of enquiring about an important piece of work, only to discover that the key person to speak to is on leave. Adding 52 further such days per year on which that might occur with a 4-day week, would not necessarily make for greater productivity.Nevertheless, there may be enterprises which could cope well with a shorter week. In 1976 I worked in a factory that operated a three-day week. Initially they had been forced to do so, as everyone had, during the Miner’s Strike of 1973-4. When the strike was over and the 5-day week was restored however, this particular company -having discovered just how much more productive they had become during the national emergency measure- carried on with just the 3 days working.
A trial for a four-day week is due to run for six months later this year if 30 or so companies can be recruited to participate. Employees will get 100% of their previous pay for 80% of their previous hours in exchange for 100% of their previous productivity. Academics from Oxford & Cambridge will monitor performance – but not nearly as closely, I expect, as the boards of directors will.I am sceptical because my experience was of a manufacturing unit. I ‘m not convinced that the model will work for our largely service based economy, but if firms are willing to experiment, the results may be interesting. Of one thing I’m certain however, it certainly wouldn’t work in the Commons.