Self Employment Increases

These would previously been employed positions but employers appear to prefer the flexibility of an outsourced workforce.

As would appear likely, if this growth continues for the next five years, the implication is that half of the working population will be self-employed by 2020. In addition, there are already rising numbers of limited companies being formed with 595,000 new formations last year alone so the complexion of the workplace is changing rapidly.

Hiring an outsourced workforce offers considerable advantages to employers in holiday pay, sickness absence and pension contributions and often leads to greater productivity but there is a currently a fine line between self employment and hidden employment and freelancers would be well advised to check their status re IR35 legislation.

The new Auto Enrolment legislation currently being rolled out is laudable insofar as it means that qualifying employees must be offered access to a company pension scheme. This will no doubt create wealth for participants in their retirement but, if more and more of the workforce is becoming self employed then it is highly predictable that there is more pension legislation to come.