Londoners are working the longest hours for more than 20 years, official figures reveal.
They show the average week for all workers in London is 34 hours, a peak not surpassed since 2004 when the regional figures from the Office for National Statistics started.
The record high has been reached by a recent increase in hours by full-time workers and a trend over the past two decades of people in part-time jobs working longer.
Full-time workers in the capital are putting in on average 37.8 hours a week, the highest figure since the end of 2019, just before Covid swept into Britain.
The city was initially hardest hit by the virus with central London becoming a ‘ghost town’.
Gradually, more and more Londoners have returned to the office and other workplaces.
At the same time, many households in the city have been financially squeezed by the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with inflation at 3.3% remaining well above the 2% target for the Bank of England.
Men in full-time jobs in London are working on average 39.2 hours a week, and women 35.8 hours, according to the ONS data for the year ending last December.
For all workers, including those in part-time posts, the average week is 34 hours, a joint record high since 2004.
For men, the latest figure was 36.7 hours and for women 30.9.
Unemployment has soared in London to the highest rate in the country, hitting 7.4% in the three months to February, up from 7.2% in the previous quarter.
Tens of thousands of jobs have gone in retail, the hospitality sector, construction and office administration.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been accused of fuelling unemployment by a wave of tax rises since Labour came to power, which she has defended as paying towards boosting public services.
Just under 390,000 Londoners were unemployed, according to the latest ONS figures, around the equivalent of the population of Coventry.
Women have been particularly affected by the jobless rise, with their unemployment rate jumping from 6.7% to 8% in the three months to February.
Men in the city have seen a drop in the unemployment rate from 7.6% in the three months to November last year, to 6.7% in the following quarter.
Luke Taylor, Liberal Democrat London spokesman and MP for Sutton and Cheam, said: “Londoners shouldn't have to work record hours just to stay afloat, while unemployment across the capital continues to rise.
“To help the cost of living crisis and boost businesses, we need to get the economy growing.
“The Government urgently needs to slash the red tape holding back so many British businesses by negotiating a bespoke UK-EU Customs Union that would bring billions back into the economy.”
Youth unemployment, which has soared in London, dipped slightly in the year to December, but still remains at 18.2%.
Sir Sadiq Khan has issued a stark warning of the threat from AI to jobs and people in this 16-to-24 age group may be heavily impacted.
Nationwide, average regular wage growth dropped further, to 3.6% in the three months to February, down from 3.8% in the previous three months and remaining at the lowest level since November 2020.
Earnings are still outstripping inflation, rising by 0.4% with the Consumer Prices Index taken into account, but this is the lowest real growth for more than two-and-a-half years, and the increase is driven significantly by pay rises in the public sector.
Vacancies also plunged by 29,000 in the three months to 711,000, now the lowest level since April 2021.
Donald Trump’s Iran war has hit economies around the world, including the UK, and there are fears of more job losses if inflation rises further due to the biggest oil supply shock on record caused by Iran effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz.
After Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, inflation sky-rocketed to 11% in late 2022 in the UK as the cost of energy jumped.
Item Club economists are now forecasting the national jobless rate will surge from 4.9% to 5.8% by the middle of 2027, with almost 250,000 more people without a job.
Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said: "We cannot escape the effects of the war in the Middle East which are likely to feed through to prices and employment in the coming months.
"We will do everything we can to support the country through this period."
But the Conservatives took aim at the rise in inactivity with its rate across the country increasing to 21% in the three months to February, up from 20.7% in the previous three months and the highest level for over 18 months.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately said: "This month's (national) dip in unemployment is outweighed by the rise in people who are economically inactive, who have left the labour market altogether."
She added: "Labour's taxes and red tape have killed opportunity for many thousands of people."
