The number of people in the UK who want to work more hours than they already do – defined as ‘underemployed’ – has risen substantially over the last three years since the start of the economic downturn, Office for National Statistics data reveals.

It shows that there are 3.05m underemployed workers in the UK – 10.5% of the workforce as a whole. This has risen by 980,000 since 2008.

Between 2000 and 2008, the number had stayed relatively stable at around the 2m mark.

Most underemployed workers (62%) work part-time currently. Just over three-quarters (76% or 2.33m) underemployed people want more hours in their current job, 15% wanted to move to a new job with more hours, while 9% would plump for an additional job.

The three occupations with the highest underemployment rates were school midday and crossing assistants (39%), bar staff (33%) and cleaners (31%).