Among the mountains of data released every month by the Office for National Statistics is the revelation that second jobs is the only employment category in the UK to have declined in the three months of July, and also the only one where people worked longer hours.

The number of workers with second jobs declined by 20,000 from 1.14 in the previous quarter to 1.12m, as the number of people in work increased by 236,000.

Meanwhile, the average number of weekly hours worked declined marginally for full-time and part-time workers, by six minutes and 12 minutes respectively.

However, workers with second jobs put in an average of 9.9 hours a week, up from 9.3 hours previously. This rise was almost all due to men with second jobs putting in extra hours, with their average rising significantly quarter-on-quarter from 10.1 hours to 11.4 hours, while female hours working in second jobs were up 0.1 hours to 8.8 hours.

Andrew Sissons, researcher at The Work Foundation, comments: “The number of people with second jobs has remained surprisingly relatively flat throughout the recession, despite the large rises in part-time work and underemployment we’ve seen over the last couple of years. Given that more people are looking for extra hours, you would perhaps expect to see an increase in the number of people taking extra jobs, but that does not seem to have materialised.

 “The rise in hours among people working second jobs is hard to explain. It is possible that such jobs are becoming more formalised, as employers seek fewer staff but for longer hours, but there is a strong chance that this is just a temporary blip in the data.”