By LIZ HULL, Daily Mail

Last updated at 10:11 13 April 2006

The job may be long on hours and short on pay.

But working for yourself will make you much happier than those employed by others, according to research.

People who run their own businesses have such flexibility and independence that they enjoy far greater job satisfaction, experts claim.

The self-employed work longer hours for lower wages than their wage-slave counterparts.

Scientists found entrepreneurs put up with longer hours because they were worried about how much money they would have in the future.

The report, by academics at the University of Durham, also discovered numbers of female entrepreneurs have not increased since the 1990s.

Professor Simon Parker said young businessmen and women were more likely to take risks in new markets than established entrepreneurs.

Self-employed workers who were still successful in their 60s were less likely to retire, he said.

"We found that greater, or potentially greater, earnings around retirement age decreases the probability of retirement of the self-employed.

"It seems to be, 'Why stop whilst there's a good thing going?' - a very understandable sentiment.

"Gender, health and family circumstances appear to have little bearing on entrepreneurs' retirement decisions."

He said Government policies could encourage self-employment by increasing benefits.

Young people should be the target for Government schemes to encourage entrepreneurship, the researchers suggested.

The report, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, found between one in eight and one in 10 workers in the UK were self-employed.

They were responsible for giving jobs to about as many people, Prof Parker said.