Are zero hour contracts a sign of a change in culture

According to recent news, zero hour contracts are at a record high. It is reported from data from the Office for National Statistics that 110,000 more people were on contracts that do not guarantee work in 2016 compared with the same period in 2015. That's an increase of nearly 14%, and 30% higher than 2014.

Aside from the concerns about decrease quality of life and increase in number of families in poverty, zero hour contracts signal another change. The increase of people on zero hour contracts means that there are more people in work that is not secure and does not guaranteed enough income to live on day by day. This has a knock on effect that is causing a shift in our culture. We are now in a world where employers dodge the legal responsibility they have on staff, a culture whereby people have to juggle one job off against another and balance the availability of time against the need for more money in order to get enough money at the end of the month. A culture where everyone has to be entrepreneurial just to eat, a culture where you await a text message in the morning that tells you whether you have a job that day, a culture where there are no more secure tenancy agreements and property is too expensive for the average person to buy and therefore not receiving that text in the morning is just one more step towards losing your tenancy..... Has the increase in zero hour contracts created a new "hustle" culture and what does this mean for us in the future?

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