ABSTRACT
In certain industries, shiftwork is now the dominant type of work pattern and, if present trends continue, this will be the case in more and more sectors of the economy in the future. It investigates the main influences on the incidence of shift working in the UK. The chapter builds a theoretical framework that is helpful in establishing the set of variables that would appear to be important in determining the extent of shift working in industry. These variables are then used in an econometric model designed to explain the incidence of shift working in the manufacturing sector of the British economy. The bulk of theoretical and empirical work in this area has focused on capital utilisation rather than shift working. It provides some confidence in the use of this model to undertake a more detailed analysis of the different types of work pattern that employers adopt with more detailed data that might become available.
