According to the SOURCEWIRE, a research reveals that there are 1.4 million freelancers in the UK. The Small Business Research Centre at Kingston University on behalf of The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) says the figure reflects a 14% growth in this alternative way of working since 1998.

John Brazier, managing director of PCG said: “We are delighted and proud to be able to present the first authoritative study of the UK’s freelance population. This study gives us a credible outline of the size and characteristics of our dynamic freelance workforce, which has not existed up until now.”

According to the SOURCEWIRE, notable findings include:

- of the 1.4 million freelancers, 63% are male and 37% female
- 58% define themselves as working “full time”, 42% as working “part time”
- 163,000 people undertake freelance work in a secondary role, as well as working in another main job

And freelancers’ characteristics vary between different occupations:

. Management, IT, engineering and broadcasting tend to be male dominated
. Translation services, proof-reading and book publishing appear to be female-dominated
. The prevalent forms vary in different sectors: limited companies are the norm in some, and sole traders the norm in others, largely depending on whether it is common to use agencies to find work.

Co-author of the report, Dr John Kitching, commented: “Freelancers play an important role in the UK economy both in their numbers, their contribution to business turnover and in the range of activities they perform. But there is no ‘typical’ freelance worker; they vary in their personal, work and organisational characteristics. We have enjoyed having the opportunity to investigate the make-up of this diverse and significant group of workers.”

John Brazier added: “This is an extremely valuable snapshot of the freelance workforce; it also shows that there is much work still to do in order to build up a really detailed and thorough picture of the market.“As the only non profit association that represents the UK’s freelancers, we continuously strive to make freelancers’ voices heard by Government - the freelance community has grown over the last ten years and all the signs indicate that it will continue to grow; it is our job to ensure that Government listens to freelancers’ needs.”


References:
http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=41765&hilite=