By setting up Paradigm Family Law, we have joined the many thousands of new entrepreneurs in this country who have become self employed in recent times. The latest ONS statistics show that between 2008 and 2012 there has been a rise in the number of self employed of 367,000 and simultaneously a fall in the number of those in employment by 434,000. Of those in self employment a rise of 219,000 took place between 2011-2012 – the fastest increase in years.
The Guardian recently reported that the ‘UK is now the self-employment capital of western Europe’ according to an IPPR report. The article went on to state : ‘Figures from the IPPR think tank show that the growth in self-employment in the UK has been the fastest of all western European countries over the past year, a trend that is expected to continue when official labour market figures are published on Wednesday.’
The number of self-employed has grown by more than 1.5 million in the past 13 years to 4.5 million and now accounts for more than 15% of the labour force.
The report said: “The UK had internationally low levels of self-employment for many years but has caught up with the EU average and, if current growth continues, the UK will look more like southern and eastern European countries, which tend to have much larger shares of self-employed workers.”
The IPPR’s spokesperson 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.” He added: “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 simply looking to get by or small businesses happy to stay at their current level. The UK is just as much a nation of shopkeepers as a vanguard of cutting-edge capitalism.”
We can certainly vouch for that, although not quite shopkeepers, we most definitely aim to stop clients having to shop around for family law services by providing their tailored fixed fee solutions for divorcing couples keen to keep a lid on their costs.
For enquiries please email [email protected] or [email protected] or call 0845 6020422.
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Infographic by Office for National Statistics (ONS)
