YOUNG workers are losing career opportunities amid an alarming rise in zero-hour contracts, experts warn today.

Under-25s are “paying the price” for Britain’s “decade of indecision” over whether to regulate or simply ban the highly insecure form of employment, the Work Foundation has found.

In a report published today, the Lancaster University-based think tank warns that 136,000 more workers were given zero-hour contracts in 2023 than in the previous year and 65 per cent of those new contracts went to 16 to 24-year-olds (88,000).

Young workers are now 5.9 times more likely to be on zero-hour contracts, according to the foundation, with three in four of the record 1.1 million people in Britain currently on such contracts also in severely insecure work, meaning that they face contractual and financial insecurity and a lack of access to rights and protections.

The labour market experts say that the rising trend of zero-hour contracts could affect the quality of jobs that young workers are able to secure in the future and lead to increased rates of long-term sickness.

Work Foundation head of research Alice Martin said: “Other nations have already either banned zero-hour contracts or heavily regulated their use, so we need to catch up and find a better balance between workplace security and flexibility.

“For young people starting work for the first time, having a poor-quality job that provides irregular hours and pay can be a highly stressful first experience of working life.

“The reality is most people feel trapped in these highly insecure jobs due to factors out of their control.

“If they remain stuck in this kind of insecure work for long, it can really limit their chances to get better jobs in the future.”

The researchers said that workers of all ages should have a right to guaranteed hours and more predictable shift patterns, while being able to opt in to zero-hour contracts only if they specifically request them.  

Their report echoes previous research by the TUC showing that structurally disadvantaged minorities are most likely to be in insecure work and that most people with zero-hours contracts are stuck on them for over a year.

General secretary Paul Nowak said: “This report lays bare the huge financial insecurity workers on zero-hours contracts face.

“These one-sided contracts hand almost total control over hours and earning power to managers, making it nigh-on impossible for workers to plan budgets and childcare.”

Labour’s New Deal for Working People includes plans to ban zero-hours contracts if the party wins power at the next general election.