The Office of National Statistics released their latest labour market statistics, revealing that self-employed numbers have decreased between July and September this year.
Looking at the UK workforce as a whole, figures show that these numbers increased only marginally compared to the previous year. At 32,409k, it was 23k (0.1%) higher than the previous quarter (April-June 2018) but was 350k (1.1%) higher than the same period a year earlier.
However, self-employment fell by 17k (0.4%) to 4,751k underpinned by 9k (-0.3%) fewer people working full-time and -8k (-0.6%) working part-time, representing a self-employment rate of 14.7%
Temporary employment recorded a level 55k (-3.5%) lower than the previous quarter at 1,514k and this represented a temporary employment rate of 4.7%.
The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE) believes that the continued drop in self-employment is being caused by damaging government policies and uncertainty about Brexit.
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Email JaimeAndy Chamberlain, Deputy Director of Policy at IPSE, explained, “The self-employed are suffering from a decline in confidence and earnings. We are hearing a very clear message from our members that this is due to government policy.
“Confidence in the economy overall remains very low, which is due in no small measure to the lack of a clear plan for the UK’s exit from the EU.
“Against this backdrop, it is unsurprising that the total number of self-employed is falling. The fact that unemployment has also risen should be a red flag to policymakers. If the self-employed are discouraged from working for themselves by ill-judged policies like IR35 and Universal Credit, it is likely to mean further rises in unemployment.”
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