THE number of women in the workforce has increased over the past decade.

Women now make up 44 per cent of the labour force, up from 42 per cent in 1988, says a report by the Office for National Statistics.

Four out of five part-timers are women, an increase of 13 per cent in ten years.

The number of working women with children aged under five has risen from 45 per cent in 1988 to 55 per cent last year, while the number of women in work is up by 900,000 over the past ten years to 11.5 million.

More than half the women in employment are in clerical and sales jobs or in personal services.

The proportion of women who worked during their pregnancy and returned to their job within a year of having their child has also increased dramatically in recent years.

In 1979 only 24 per cent of women returned to work after having a baby, but this figure rose to 67 per cent by 1996.

Research from the TUC shows that only one parent in seven will take advantage of a new right to family leave partly because they cannot afford to take unpaid time off.

Up to 650,000 parents will not take time off because they fear their boss will hold it against them.

Unskilled men are least likely to take up the new right contained in the Employment Relations Bill currently going through Parliament.

Apoll of parents found that professional women workers are most likely to take up the entitlement of up to three months unpaid parental leave.

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