The Department for BIS recently published statistics which show just how dependant the UK economy is on small businesses. In fact SMEs provide 60% of all the UK’s employment.
In January 2010, there were around 4.5 million private sector firms in the UK. These companies had a turnover of £3.2 trillion and provided employment for 22.5 million people, including providing contracts for umbrella company contractors.
A massive 99.2% of these enterprises were designated as ‘small’; that is employing between 0 and 49 employees. A further 28,000 were ‘medium’, employing between 50 and 249 workers and only 6,000 provided jobs for 250 people or more.
The statistics also show that sole traders accounted for about 64% of private enterprises, 8% were partnerships and the remaining 28% were companies. Of the 2.9 million sole traders, only 10% of them provided work for other people. During 2009, there was an increase of 2.8% in the number of sole traders in the UK whilst the number of limited companies dropped by 2.7%.
The business and enterprise minister, Mark Prisk, said it was encouraging to see the increase, especially during times of recession. He also claimed the coalition will be encouraging more entrepreneurs to set up their own business as well as helping existing new start-ups.
Mike Petrook, the Chartered Management Institute’s head of communications, is not surprised at the growth in new start-ups. He explained that people’s priorities are changing and they want to succeed rather than just survive.
© 2011 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Image: Water Bottles by LeeBrimelow
