Self-employment has been rising since 2001, with particularly large increases in 2003; 282,000 in the year to September 2003. This article investigates various themes to find out why these increases have occurred.
There have been changes to the tax system in recent years targeted at supporting small businesses. The flows between those employed, self-employed and different statuses of self-employment, such as sole director of limited company have been analysed to see how these tax changes have affected the labour market. These changes cannot explain the rise in self-employment. Other external reasons are discussed, such as substitution from employees to self-employed seen in certain industry groups.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) methodology was considered to see if any impact on the self-employed had occurred. Neither the removal of the self-employment edit or any sample rotation had an impact on these results. General economic factors are looked at to see if the increase in self-employment fits the recent economic climate.
The LFS is the major source in this article, including its longitudinal dataset. This article delves further into the detail and background developments behind the earlier descriptive article on the recent increases seen in self-employment; 'Changes to self-employment in the UK: 2002 to 2003'. 'Self-employment in the UK Labour Market'.
Published in web format: 7 October 2004 at 9:30 am
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