UK – A massive fall in self-employed earnings

Where there is no argument, though, is on the massive fall in self-employed earnings. The ONS estimates a 22 percent drop in pay since 2008.

This is consistent with the Resolution Foundation’s findings and the HMRC figures I discussed earlier this year. As ONS says, the self-employed may under-state their income in surveys but they have been doing this for years. Therefore, while it might understate the overall earnings figure, it wouldn’t make much difference to the percentage by which that income has fallen. That self-employed incomes have collapsed is now surely beyond doubt. Although there are hundreds of thousands more people self-employed than in 2008, £8 billion has disappeared from self-employed earnings. That’s an astonishing amount.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at The self-employment earnings timebomb | Flip Chart Fairy Tales.