The cost-of-living squeeze: impact on our community
By: Claire, redwigwam
Britons are scrambling to find extra sources of income as the cost-of-living crisis bites.
We recently surveyed our workers to understand the impact the crisis is having on people’s lives already. And the results were alarming.
Our research showed 77% of respondents are looking for extra work to make ends meet, and 59% are looking for extra work on top of a full or part-time job.
33% don’t have a regular job and are juggling a number of recruitment agencies to find work.
And over half of those polled said they are ‘depending’ on flexible temporary jobs to help them cope with the cost of living.
Rising energy bills are the biggest concern by far for people and the cost of living is more worrying than the Ukraine war and Covid. Some 66% are eating out less, 67% are trying to use less electricity and gas and 60% have slashed their spending at the supermarket,
Over 43% have cut back on driving while 38% have stopped paid subscriptions such as Netflix and gym memberships, while almost 40% of those polled are not going on holiday this year.
Here at redwigwam, the UK’s largest platform for flexible staff, we have seen a huge uplift in the number of people registering for work with since the start of April.
“We saw a similar record number of registrations at the start of the pandemic. This is like another pandemic. The soaring cost of living is a horror story for people and they are panicking. ”
Lorna Davidson, CEO redwigwam
Lorna Davidson, our CEO, said: “Since the start of April we have seen an 800% increase in the number of people registering for extra work on our platform.
“We saw a similar record number of registrations at the start of the pandemic. This is like another pandemic. The soaring cost of living is a horror story for people and they are panicking.
“It’s very clear that people are desperately looking for ways of making extra money and they’re taking on extra work on top of their day jobs. The additional jobs people are taking include cleaning, hospitality and care work, warehousing and retail jobs and they’re looking for flexible four or six-hour shifts so they can fit them around their other work.
“Our survey shows that 62% of people depend on their car but if they can’t afford to fill it, how are they going to be able to get to work?
“We’re reminding our hirers that staff are their most important commodity, and they need to be doing everything they can to help them. That includes paying them properly, paying them daily if required and helping them with transport to and from work.
“They also need to be really flexible and offer shorter shifts of just a few hours to attract all those people looking for ways of topping up their income.”
If you need staff, or are looking for flexible work to top up your income, we are here to help. Our bespoke AI-powered staffing platform matches our database of over 200,000 flexible workers with 4,500 registered businesses all over the UK.