LOWER-paid, part-time jobs accounted for half of the growth in female employment last year, according to new research.

Figures from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) show that while full-time employment accounted for all of the net growth in male employment last year, for women it made up just 47 per cent of growth.

The union organisation claimed that most of this increase in part-time work was in jobs like cleaning, caring and clerical roles, with hourly pay ranging between £6.70 and £9.34.

TUC officials warned that the figures show new jobs for women are still too concentrated in low-paid sectors.

General Secretary Frances O'Grady said: "There is a big divide between women working full-time and those working part-time and far too many new jobs are in low-paid sectors.

"A large number of part-time women are moving in to sectors like social care and cleaning where wages are low and contracts are often insecure.

"Unless we create better-paid part-time and flexible work opportunities, far too few women will see any real benefit from the recovery."

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) last month revealed that Scotland was on course to have more women workers than men for the first time, after the data showed another big surge in female employment.

The number of women in work rose 20,000 in the final three months of last year to stand at a record 1,301,000, while the number of men in work remained roughly the same at 1,324,000.

However, at that point fears were raised by the Scottish Trades Union Congress that a large part of the rise was the result of more women taking up part-time, low paid work.

The recent TUC figures back this argument, while showing that, in contrast, half of the jobs growth in full-time female employment was in managerial and professional occupations, where pay was between £17.73 and £18.28 an hour.

The most common part-time self-employed jobs for women in 2014 were hairdressers and cleaners, where pay is typically below the living wage, according to the study.

The TUC said that while many women choose to work part-time, there has been a marked increase in the number moving into part-time jobs since the recession because they cannot find full-time employment.

There are still 300,000 more women working part-time who would like a full-time job than there was at the end of 2007, said the report.

The figures from last month revealed that a total of 2,625,000 people were employed in Scotland in the last three months of 2014 - the highest number on record.

Unemployment also fell 15,000 to 149,000, the lowest since 2009.