Member Article

North East has the lowest self-employment rate in the UK

According to a report from the ONS, the North East is the region with the lowest proportion of self-employed workers in the UK.

The UK has experienced the lowest outflow rate from self-employment in the last 20 years. Of people who were self employed in 2009, just 23% were no longer so in 2014.

London leads the regional figures with 17.3% of workers in self-employment. The North East has the lowest proportion, with just 10.8% of self-employed workers, an increase of 1.1% since 2008.

South Tyneside has fallen in the bottom five Local Authorities, with a self-employment rate of 9.3%, more than 5% lower than the national average at 15%.

The most common self-employed roles in the UK in construction, taxi driving and joinery. In recent years there have been increases in self-employed management consultants.

This report comes a week after The Institute of Public Policy Research think-tank said the number of people moving into self-employment has risen by 8% in the past year, faster than any other Western European country.

Spencer Thompson, IPPR senior economic analyst, said: “Around 2,000 people a month are moving off benefits into their own business. The government’s response to the rise in self-employment has been to praise the UK’s entrepreneurial zeal, while increasingly promoting self-employment as an option to job-seekers.

“The self-employed come in many shapes and sizes. Some are entrepreneurs, driven by high-growth ambitions, innovation and disruptive business models, but many are sole-traders bands simply looking to get by or small businesses happy to stay at their current level.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ellen Forster .