IPSE, the Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed, has warned that the Government must provide better support to the self-employed if it wants to continue growing a flexible and healthy economy.
Commenting on the figures, Chief Executive Chris Bryce said:
“Today’s figures again show a fall in the number of self-employed people working in the UK compared to last year. The figures mirror IPSE’s own findings, which show a fall in the proportion of freelancers on assignment in the second quarter of the year.
“Considering a large proportion of jobs created in the past five years came from the self-employed community, the Government will be relying on this group to meet its ambition of an extra two million people in the labour market by the end of Parliament.
“We have yet to see the impact of the Summer Budget on the number of self-employed. IPSE is very concerned that some of the measures announced will make working for yourself more complicated, more expensive and less attractive. We need the Government to look at ways to encourage people to become self-employed and support those already working in this way.”
Key statistics:
- The proportion of Freelancers on assignment fell from 86% in Q4 2014 to 80% in Q2 2015.
- 46% of those surveyed believe business costs will increase over the next 12 months.
- IPSE’s latest research can be downloaded from https://www.ipse.co.uk/research/economic-outlook-research
