The current self-employment boom has been well covered in the news, and we have also mentioned it here on our blog, but now more people are beginning to analyse the trends that are present within this shift in working patterns, and one of the most prominent observations is the average age of self-employed individuals within the UK. According to an article on Contractor UK, the backbone of this expansion has proved to be individuals over the age of 50. Such workers possess a wealth of workplace experience, so presumably when the economic hardships struck, and it became tougher to find new positions, these workers decided that setting up on their own would be a perfect solution.

Apparently, more than 70% of self-employed workers in the UK are aged in excess of 50, and the Office of National Statistics has stated that this revelation is rather unsurprising. In general, the tendency to become self-employed increases as the age boundaries rise, and put simply most young people lack the experience, or perhaps more accurately the confidence, to set up business on their own. Regardless of the age of these self-employed workers, the economy as a whole certainly owes them a lot, as more than 51,000 self employed workers have begun trading in various capacities since 2008.

It’s certainly true that self-employment might be a more natural step for an older person to take, but that doesn’t mean that young people shouldn’t consider it too. Many graduates have found refuge within self employed and contracting positions after university, and with young people still struggling to find work across the country this could well be a viable route for others to take as well. Contracting can be daunting to engage in even for older people at the beginning, and so there is no reason why a young person can’t learn the same sort of work practises earlier in life. What’s more, there are many services out there to assist people who operate within the world of contracting, so there is no reason to ‘go it alone’.

Here at ICS, we have been offering accountancy and contractor payroll services for more than a decade, and have a wealth of knowledge and advice we can share. Much of this is outlined in our online guides, and this is an ideal starting point to start researching the contracting marketplace in general. Our advice and service will not only help you to start your contracting profession, but they will also help you to make the most of it as well.