6.5 Diversity of employment opportunities
Why is it significant?
A labour market with a wide and diverse range of employment opportunities is one way to give business the flexibility that it needs.
	How does the UK perform?
	There exists a wide range of employment opportunities in the UK. Between 1997 and 2002, working patterns are broadly unchanged (chart 6.5.1). Chart 6.5.2, displaying the trends over a longer time period, shows that the incidence of part-time working picked up in the early 1990s, while the incidence of self-employment fell (chart 6.5.2). The proportion of people working part-time in the UK is high, when compared with other EU Member States, whereas the incidence of temporary employment appears to be below the European average (chart 6.5.3).