The Office for National Statistics said that in the three months to May, 927,000 people said they were working part time because could not find a full-time job. The figure is a third more than a year ago and is the highest number since the ONS began collating the data in 1992. Many firms are asking staff to reduce their hours as the recession bites. British Airways has asked many of its staff to work part-time or take unpaid leave. The ONS said that 12.5% of all part-time workers were unwillingly working fewer hours. The percentage fell below 8% in the early years of this decade, but it is now almost as high as the recession in the early 1990s when the rate reached 14%.