Growing army of self-employed good news for UK economy

Government figures show that the number of self-employed has risen by 182,000 in the three months leading up to March 2016, compared to the same period in 2015.

Self-employment group, IPSE, said that it was pleased to see the self-employed are driving the UK's employment levels. There are now 4.69 million self-employed people in the UK.

IPSE Economic Advisor Lorence Nye said: "Every month we are seeing an increase in the number of self-employed people in the UK. This can only be good news. They now make up 15 per cent of the UK's workforce. Compared to other similar sized economies this is a very large proportion, and is evidence that the self-employed have driven the successes of the labour market and growth in the economy in recent years.

"The interesting thing is that the latest figures show full time self-employed people are the fastest growing group of workers in the nation. We know people who work for themselves report particularly high levels of job satisfaction and our research shows the vast majority have no intention of returning to traditional employment.

"We need the Government to continue building a suitable regulatory environment that allows independent professionals and the self-employed to thrive. It is now time for the Government to start implementing the recommendations from the recent Deane review on self-employment."