13
PRO INSTALLER APRIL 2014
PRO NEWS
@proinstaller1
Selfemployment
boom: good
or bad?
Britain now has more people working for themselves than ever before.
As of the last quarter of 2013 some
4.3 million of us earn our own crust
and are officially self-employed.
This represents a significant increase.
Though there was a slight trend upwards
for many years in the early to mid-2000s,
the number of self-employed has increased
by 573,000 since the recession of 2008-09 a rise of 15%.
‘increased by 573,000’
Interestingly, over 60% of this increase has
actually taken place even more recently from around the middle of 2011.
The net result is that a staggering one in
seven of the workers in this country is now
working for him or herself.
It is something that has passed relatively
unnoticed but it is worth considering how
much more negative the overall unemployment picture would have been had it not
happened.
The HR professionals body, the CIPD estimates that the rise in self-employment has
compensated for around 40% of the loss in
employee jobs.
Had that not happened we could have
seen unemployment nudging three million,
with unemployment for women, who represent more than half of the self-employment
growth since the recession, taking the brunt
of that.
And the trend shows no sign of abating if anything it seems to be getting stronger.
Compared to a year ago the Office for
National Statistics (ONS) says there are
now 395,000 more people in employment
overall.
Of that, some 273,000 are employees, i.e.
people working for firms or public sector
bodies. That means that some 150,000, or
38%, are self-employed.
If we look at the gains in recent quarters the trend is even starker. In the latest
quarter’s data around three quarters of the
193,000 increase in people in employment
comes from people employing themselves.
For some this will be a cause of jubilation,
proof that the UK is more entrepreneurial
than ever before.
Indeed there are signs that the UK’s more
flexible labour force has more room these
days for freelancers and people starting
their own businesses which can only be a
good thing.
But others say the speed at which the
rate has increased in such a short time it
is proof that our recovery isn’t creating the
jobs that it ought to be, and the jobs market
remains insecure.
‘a major change’
Whatever your view there is no doubt
that this is a major change in the manner in
which our economy operates and in how its
recent recovery has come about.
For a start the trend might mark a divergence from how our economy has recovered from recession in the past.
If we look at the recession in the early
1990s, for example, we see that self-employment declined as firms began t