contractor work accounts for 44 per cent of the net rise in employment since mid 2010. The Trades Union Congress says ahead of the latest employment figures published later this week, and as the Scottish TUC meets in Dundee.

The new analysis shows that despite Contractors being a relatively small part of the UK jobs market – just one in seven workers are currently undergoing contract based work – it has accounted for 44% of all employment growth since the last election in 2010.

Over 40 per cent of all the contract jobs created since mid-2010 are also part-time. The TUC is concerned that many people are only taking this kind of work because they are unable to find good quality employee jobs which provide the stable employment they really want.

The TUC’s analysis also shows that the number of people starting their own businesses has fallen in recent years. The biggest growth areas of self-employment since mid-2010 have been people working for themselves (up 232,000), freelancing (up 69,000) or sub-contracting (up 67,000). This seems very true for the structured cabling industry, and proves a valuable shift in working for both data cabling companies and structured cabling candidates, allowing for reduce overhead costs and more freedom on which candidates are used on site.

The TUC is concerned that the growth of self-employment is at the expense of more secure employee jobs. Many newly self-employed workers do the same work as employees but with less job security, poorer working conditions and often less take-home pay, says the TUC.

Self-employed workers also have no right to paid sick, holiday, maternity or paternity leave, redundancy pay or protection against unfair dismissal – a particular problem for self-employed workers who are sub-contracted to another employer. The government is also planning to exempt most self-employed workers from vital health and safety protections in the Deregulation Bill currently making its way through way through Parliament.

The TUC is concerned that insecure work including self-employment, agency work and zero-hours contracts are becoming a permanent feature of the labour market, even as the economy recovers. The growth of casualised work is likely to continue to hold back wages, and prevent people from having the kind of secure employment they need to pay their bills, save money and plan for the future, warns the TUC.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Self-employment accounts for almost half of all the new jobs created under this government.

“But these newly self-employed workers are not the budding entrepreneurs ministers like to talk about. Only a tiny fraction run their own businesses, while the vast majority work for themselves or another employer – often with fewer rights, less pay and no job security.

“While some choose to be self-employed, many people are forced into it because there is no alternative work. The lack of a stable income and poor job security often associated with self-employment makes it hard for people to pay their bills, arrange childcare, plan holidays or even buy or rent a home.

“The economy is finally back in recovery yet people’s wages are still shrinking and many are unable to find stable employment. Until we see decent pay rises and better job security, working people will continue to feel that the recovery is passing them by."

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