Self-employment at a 40 year high
Thursday 21st August 2014
The number of self-employed workers is at its highest level since records began almost 40 years ago. Around 4.6m people now work for themselves in the UK which is almost 15% of the working population.
The most popular self-employed sectors are:
- construction and building: 167,000 people
- taxi drivers and chauffeurs: 166,000
- carpenters and joiners: 144,000
However, other areas showing a big rise are management consultancy, photographers and chartered accountants.
This is an increase from 13% of the workforce at the start of the financial crisis in 2008. However, it might not actually be a good sign for the economy because the average income of self-employed workers has slumped by 22% over the same period. So more people are working but for less money.