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It revealed that the level of self-employed workers in the UK increased from 3.8 million in 2008 to 4.6 million in 2015.
The article found that self-employed older workers are much more likely than their younger colleagues to make the transition from full-time to part-time working, and account for a larger portion of the growth in this employment mode in recent years.
This rarely involves a change of industry and occupation, and is consistent with workers managing their retirement in a different manner. A larger number of workers appear to be choosing part-time self-employment rather than retiring directly.
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Both groups are relatively concentrated in higher occupational groups and in the South East and London, with full-time self-employed workers in particular becoming more concentrated in the capital.
The article suggests that self-employed workers are broadly content with their position in the labour market, with little evidence of older part-time self-employed workers wanting a full-time position, of job search or dissatisfaction with being self-employed.
Among younger and mid-aged self-employed women, the growth in self-employment has not been accompanied by a rise in the number of people who would prefer to work full-time, nor a clear uptick in the number of workers seeking an alternative job. Among younger part-time self-employed men, however, the picture is less certain. Larger portions of these workers display a greater degree of dissatisfaction with their part-time status and appear to have come directly from unemployment – possibly indicating a choice made under economic hardship. It is among these workers that evidence of under-employment is strongest.
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2016
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