Hold on to your hats – the nation’s army of self-employed workers may soon have its ranks swell with younger Brits, according to one recent research study.
The Prince’s Trust says that a scant five per cent of younger Brits currently work as a freelancer or an umbrella company worker. However, these happy few report that optimism is running high, as nearly half of these young adults indicated that the next six months should bring new opportunities for business growth. However, this five per cent figure is set to balloon over the next five years, as a full 25 per cent of young employees surveyed reported wanting to strike out on their own by becoming self-employed by 2018 – and an even more weighty 30 per cent said they had plans to do so sometime shortly after that!
This new activity has most likely been sparked by the absolutely horrid unemployment rates for young Brits. Especially with the jobs market being in the state that it is, a good number of young adults would rather take their chances trying their hand at running their own businesses; the survey results bear this out, as 25 per cent of respondents between the ages of 16 and 30 said they’d give the whole contract worker thing a go instead of beating their heads against the wall of an attempt to find permanent employment in a market where there’s too few vacancies and too many applicants.
Many of these intrepid young Brits will doubtlessly embrace mobile working to start their own freelancing careers, as now all you need is a broadband connection and a decent laptop to work from the confines of your home. The next generation of freelancers could very well be starting their careers from their childhood bedrooms now – something I think is positively brilliant!
Still, it’s going to be a long time before these young adults are going to be able to ‘quit their day job’ so to speak – well, if they’re lucky enough to have a day job anyway. Brits entering the freelancing or contract working sector often have to supplement their earnings with a more traditional source of income until they build up enough business to cut the cord on their permanent employee status, but when that day comes it will be a safe bet that there will be much rejoicing in the hearts of these young Brits for crawling out from the boot-heel of the nine-to-five grind and finally becoming their own boss.
