come,” he said. Some people have argued that the flexibility of zero-hours contracts may have allowed the UK to avoid higher levels of unemployment during the economic downturn, while the CIPD research suggests that only 16% of those on zero-hours contracts report that their employer frequently fails to provide them with sufficient hours each week. The institute’s figures also suggest that 17% of employers in the private sector made use of zero- hours contracts, considerably lower than the 34% of organizations in the voluntary sector and 24% in the public sector. Industries where employers were most likely to report at least one person on a zero-hours contract were hotels, catering and leisure (48%), education (35%) and healthcare (27%).