Are Part-Time Jobs Becoming Harder to Find in the North East?

When I moved to Newcastle, I thought finding a part-time job would be easy. This year, the reality is very different. Many students are applying everywhere, cafés, restaurants, retail stores and hearing the same response: “We’re not hiring right now.” This message seems to echo across the North East this autumn as students look for the flexible, part-time work that used to be readily available. What used to feel like a familiar routine, studying by day, working by night is now a tense waiting game. Even big chains like Greggs, Costa and McDonald's, which were reliable for students, seem to be hiring less often or offering fewer hours.

According to the North East Evidence Hub (2025), the region’s employment rate is 68.8%, the lowest in England, while the economic inactivity rate is the highest at 26.6%. At the same time, the Indeed Hiring Lab reports a 12% drop in job postings nationwide compared to pre-pandemic levels, with part-time listings falling the fastest.

“I walked all the way from Monument to the Quayside,” says Harsh, a postgraduate student. “Applied to over 20 cafés and restaurants, every café on Grey Street - Pret, Baltic, small independents, said the same thing. Either they aren’t hiring, or they want someone who can work all weekdays. I have lectures. I can’t.”

For international students, the situation is even more pressing. Visa restrictions limit work to 20 hours per week, creating fewer opportunities, while living costs keep rising.Even hospitality staffing agencies, which used to be a backup option, are unreliable now. Arc Hospitality, for example, conducts full screening, onboarding, and training here, but most of their shifts are in London and major stadium cities, not in North East. You can complete everything, get the uniform, and still wait weeks for a suitable shift.

Businesses are struggling too. The slowdown isn’t just in hiring; it’s in foot traffic. At Rani, an Indian restaurant near the Quayside, the owner shared something that struck me: “Earlier, weekends used to be packed. The city center was lively; you could see the long queue near bars. Now, even on Saturdays, we barely see 20 or 30 people. Weekdays are almost empty. The bars are empty. It’s not like before.” When fewer customers come in, fewer staff are needed. It’s not personal, but that doesn’t make it easier.

“Even zero-hour contracts aren’t reliable anymore,” says Shubh, a Data Science student. “You might get one shift every two weeks. That’s not enough to live on.”

This isn’t just about students wanting extra spending money. A part-time job often covers groceries, heating, bus fare, medication, and the occasional moment of comfort in an already demanding life. 

There are still jobs - campus roles, library shifts, event staffing, logistics, but they fill up quickly, and students arriving later in the term are already at a disadvantage. Part-time work in the North East hasn’t disappeared. It has simply become harder to find and more uncertain once you do. Acknowledging this matters. Students aren’t struggling due to laziness or lack of effort, they’re facing a region where opportunities have quietly dwindled, long before anyone warned us.