Employees and self-employed, by industry sectors and sex, UK, published quarterly, non-seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey. These are official statistics in development.

As of January 2025, there were around 4.39 million self-employed workers in the United Kingdom. During this provided time-period, self-employment in the UK has grown steadily, from a low of just 3.2 million in December 2000, to a peak of over five million at the start of 2020. After the COVID-19 pandemic, however, self-employment has fallen to levels not seen since the middle of 2015 and has struggled to recover to its pre-pandemic peak. Demographics of the self-employed There has consistently been more men self-employed than women in the UK, with recent figures showing that over 2.8 million men, and over 1.5 million women were self-employed. As of 2024, the most likely age group to be self-employed were those aged 65 or over, with over a third of workers in this age group self-employed. In the same year, around 16.5 percent of workers in London were self-employed, compared with the UK average of 13.1 percent, making London the region with the highest rate of self-employment in the UK. Self-employment support scheme In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government unveiled various measures to mitigate the economic costs to businesses and individuals. For self-employed workers, this manifested itself as the Self-Employment Income-Support Scheme, which was in its third iteration, or tranche, by December 2020. During the first tranche, which ran from March to July, there were 2.7 million claims made in total, with claims to the second and third tranches numbering 2.4 million and 1.7 million respectively. As of December 13, 2020, the overall value of these claims amounted to 14.5 billion British pounds.

Numbers of people who work in an area by gender, and whether an employee or self-employed.

This data shows the number of jobs, not the number of people. People with more than one job are counted more than once.
Figures may not add up due to rounding. Figures are rounded to the nearest thousand. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place and were calculated on unrounded figures.
Employees - An employee is anyone aged 16 years or over that an organisation directly pays from its payroll(s), in return for carrying out a full-time or part-time job or being on a training scheme. It excludes voluntary workers, self-employed and working owners who are not paid via PAYE
People who are self-employed in a second job are included in the self-employed totals.
Self-employment data is taken from the Annual Population Survey, and is by place of work. The micro data is available from the UK Data Archive.
The male/female split for employee jobs was taken from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data from NOMISweb.co.uk. These proportions were then applied to the BRES employee totals since the ASHE is a not a reliable source for total employee jobs.

See more on the BRES website.

Analysis of self-employment in NUTS1 regions in the UK from the Annual Population Survey.

Forecast: Self-Employed People in Real Estate Sector in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) is based on information held by HM Revenue and Customs tax offices on individuals who could be liable to UK income tax. It is carried out annually by HMRC and covers income assessable to tax for each tax year. Not all of them are taxpayers because the operation of personal reliefs and allowances may remove them from liability. Where income exceeds the threshold for operation of Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), the survey provides the most comprehensive and accurate official source of data on personal incomes.

The SPI is compiled to provide a quantified evidence base from which to cost proposed changes to tax rates, personal allowances and other tax reliefs for Treasury Ministers. It is used to inform policy decisions within HMRC and the Treasury, as well as for tax modelling and forecasting purposes. In addition, it is used to provide summary information for the National Accounts that are prepared by the Office for National Statistics. Finally, it is used to provide information to Members of Parliament, other Government Departments, companies, organisation and individuals.

The UK Data Archive currently holds the Public Use Tape (PUT) data for 1985-86 and 1995-96 onwards (data for 2008-09 is currently unavailable). For further details of sampling and coverage criteria, see documentation. Further information about the SPI, including income tax and personal incomes statistics, is available on the GOV.UK Statistics about personal incomes webpage.

Main Topics:
The Public Use Tape (PUT) dataset is an anonymised dataset and is based on the SPI. It allows users to produce their own analysis. The dataset contains a range of variables about personal incomes arising from employment, self employment, pension, benefits, property, savings, investments and other income sources. The dataset also contains variables about allowances, deductions and reliefs, which people might be due. There is also a regional code variable on the dataset and a trade code for cases which are self-employed. A list of data items on the Public Use Tape is provided in Annex A of the documentation.

As of 2023, Italy was the European country with the greatest number of self-employed workers, followed by the UK, France, and Poland. Self-employment is often linked to family businesses and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which Italy in particular has a large number of. Iceland, Luxembourg, and Malta have the the smallest number of self-employed persons, with less than 50,000 of these workers in each country.

Census 2021 occupation data for people aged 16 years and older and in employment, to a detailed level (4-digit Standard Occupational Classification), is part of The occupations and industries most dependent on older and younger workers: March 2021, a release of results from the 2021 Census for England and Wales. Figures may differ slightly in future releases because of the impact of removing rounding and applying further statistical processes.

Some shorthand may be used in this workbook. Individual estimates suppressed with "[c]" relate to statistics based on a small number of respondents (< 10). Such values have been suppressed on quality grounds and to maintain confidentiality.

Armed forces personnel and defence employees are included in the census and recorded as usually resident using the standard definitions. The instructions given to personnel on how to respond to the census mean that this group cannot be reliably identified in census data on industry and occupation. Information on the size and characteristics of the UK armed forces population is produced by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Part-time workers are defined as those that worked 30 hours or fewer a week. Full-time workers are defined as those that worked 31 hours or more a week.

Quality assurance information can be found here

Occupation

Occupation is classified using the Standard Occupation Classification 2020 version. Details can be found here.

Industry

Industry is classified using the Standard Industrial Classifications 2007 version. Details can be found here.

Age

This is someone’s age on their last birthday on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales.

Disabled

People who assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act (2010).

Census 2021 industry data for people aged 16 years and older and in employment, to a detailed level (Standard Industrial Classification Group Title - 2007), is part of The occupations and industries most dependent on older and younger workers: March 2021, a release of results from the 2021 Census for England and Wales. Figures may differ slightly in future releases because of the impact of removing rounding and applying further statistical processes.

Some shorthand may be used in this workbook. Individual estimates suppressed with "[c]" relate to statistics based on a small number of respondents (< 10). Such values have been suppressed on quality grounds and to maintain confidentiality.

Armed forces personnel and defence employees are included in the census and recorded as usually resident using the standard definitions. The instructions given to personnel on how to respond to the census mean that this group cannot be reliably identified in census data on industry and occupation. Information on the size and characteristics of the UK armed forces population is produced by the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Part-time workers are defined as those that worked 30 hours or fewer a week. Full-time workers are defined as those that worked 31 hours or more a week.

Quality assurance information can be found here

Occupation

Occupation is classified using the Standard Occupation Classification 2020 version. Details can be found here.

Industry

Industry is classified using the Standard Industrial Classifications 2007 version. Details can be found here.

Age

This is someone’s age on their last birthday on Census Day, 21 March 2021 in England and Wales.

Disabled

People who assessed their day-to-day activities as limited by long-term physical or mental health conditions or illnesses are considered disabled. This definition of a disabled person meets the harmonised standard for measuring disability and is in line with the Equality Act (2010).

Forecast: Self-Employed People in Scientific Research and Development Sector in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Forecast: Self-Employed People in Media and Entertainment Sector in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

Background
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a unique source of information using international definitions of employment and unemployment and economic inactivity, together with a wide range of related topics such as occupation, training, hours of work and personal characteristics of household members aged 16 years and over. It is used to inform social, economic and employment policy. The LFS was first conducted biennially from 1973-1983. Between 1984 and 1991 the survey was carried out annually and consisted of a quarterly survey conducted throughout the year and a 'boost' survey in the spring quarter (data were then collected seasonally). From 1992 quarterly data were made available, with a quarterly sample size approximately equivalent to that of the previous annual data. The survey then became known as the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS). From December 1994, data gathering for Northern Ireland moved to a full quarterly cycle to match the rest of the country, so the QLFS then covered the whole of the UK (though some additional annual Northern Ireland LFS datasets are also held at the UK Data Archive). Further information on the background to the QLFS may be found in the documentation.

Secure Access QLFS data
Secure Access datasets for the QLFS are available from the April-June 1992 quarter, and include additional, detailed variables not included in the standard 'End User Licence' (EUL) versions (see under GN 33246). Extra variables that typically can be found in the Secure Access versions but not in the EUL relate to:

• geography (see 'Spatial Units' below)
• date of birth, including day
• education and training: including type of 'other qualifications', more detail regarding the number of O'levels/GCSE passes, type of qualification gained in last 12 months, class of first degree, type of degree held, UK country of highest degree, type of current educational institution, level of Welsh baccalaureate, activities to improve knowledge or skills in last 12 months, attendance at adult learning taught courses, attendance at leisure or educational classes, self-teaching, payment of job-related training fees
• household and family characteristics: including number of family units (and extended family units) with dependent children only, and with non-dependent children only, total number of family units with more than one person, total number of eligible people, type of household, type of family unit, number of bedrooms
• employment: including industry code of main job, whether working full-time or part-time, reason job is temporary, payment of own National Insurance and tax, when started working at previous job, whether paid or self-employed in previous job, contracts with employment agency
• unemployment and job hunting: including main reason for not being employed prior to current job, reasons for leaving job (provision of care or other personal/family reasons), use of internet for job hunting, if and when will work in the future
• temporary leave from work: including proportion of salary received and duration of leave
• accidents at work and work-related health problems
• nationality, national identity and country of birth: including whether lived continuously in UK, month of most recent arrival to UK, frequency of Welsh speaking
• occurrence of learning difficulty or disability
• benefits, including additional variables on type of benefits claimed and tax credit payments

Secure Access versions of QLFS household datasets are available from 2009 under SN 7674.

Prospective users of a Secure Access version of the QLFS will need to fulfil additional requirements, commencing with the completion of an extra application form to demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the extra, more detailed variables, in order to obtain permission to use that version. Secure Access users must also complete face-to-face training and agree to Secure Access' User Agreement (see 'Access' section below). Therefore, users are encouraged to download and inspect the EUL version of the data prior to ordering the Secure Access version.

Well-Being variables are not included in the LFS
Users should note that subjective well-being variables (Satis, Worth, Happy, Anxious and Sad) are not available on the LFS, despite being referenced in the questionnaire. Users who wish to analyse well-being variables should apply for the Annual Population Survey instead (see SNs 6721 and 7961).

LFS Documentation
The documentation available from the Archive to accompany LFS datasets largely consists of the relevant versions of each volume of the user guide. However, LFS volumes are updated periodically by ONS, so users are advised to...

Dataset population: Persons aged 16 and over

Age

Age is derived from the date of birth question and is a person's age at their last birthday, at 27 March 2011. Dates of birth that imply an age over 115 are treated as invalid and the person's age is imputed. Infants less than one year old are classified as 0 years of age.

Economic activity

Economic activity relates to whether or not a person who was aged 16 and over was working or looking for work in the week before census. Rather than a simple indicator of whether or not someone was currently in employment, it provides a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market.

A person's economic activity is derived from their 'activity last week'. This is an indicator of their status or availability for employment - whether employed, unemployed, or their status if not employed and not seeking employment. Additional information included in the economic activity classification is also derived from information about the number of hours a person works and their type of employment - whether employed or self-employed.

The census concept of economic activity is compatible with the standard for economic status defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It is one of a number of definitions used internationally to produce accurate and comparable statistics on employment, unemployment and economic status.

Ethnic group

Ethnic group classifies people according to their own perceived ethnic group and cultural background.

This topic contains ethnic group write-in responses without reference to the five broad ethnic group categories, e.g. all Irish people, irrespective of whether they are White, Mixed/multiple ethnic groups, Asian/Asian British, Black/African/Caribbean/Black British or Other ethnic group, are in the "Irish" response category. This topic was created as part of the commissioned table processing.

Underlying data for the research sample a report on research exploring how Government self-employment programmes can most effectively and efficiently enable unemployed people to enter sustainable self-employment. Based on a literature review, and qualitative research among participants in welfare to self-employment programmes and staff delivering these programmes.

Labour Force Survey (LFS) data relating to employees, self-employed, full-time and part-time workers by occupation group (based on Standard Occupation Classification 2000) by sex.

Source agency: Office for National Statistics

Designation: National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: LFS

These figures show the median gross annual pay for full-time workers on a workplace basis for the area, who are on adults rates of pay, and whose pay was not affected by absence. Figures are for GB pounds per annum. Full-time workers are defined as those who work more than 30 paid hours per week or those in teaching professions working 25 paid hours or more per week. Figures for earnings come from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) which is based on a 1 per cent sample of employees, information on whose earnings and hours is obtained from employers. The survey does not cover people who are self-employed, nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period. Information relates to a pay period in April. The earnings information collected relates to gross pay before tax, national insurance or other deductions, and excludes payments in kind (i.e. payment made in the form of goods and services rather than cash). It is restricted to earnings relating to the survey pay period and so excludes payments of arrears from another period made during the survey period; any payments due as a result of a pay settlement but not yet paid at the time of the survey will also be excluded. Estimates for 2011 and subsequent years use a weighting scheme based on occupations which have been coded according to Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2010 that replaced SOC 2000. Therefore care should be taken when making comparisons with earlier years. Where the estimate is assessed with a coefficient of variation (CV) of over 20 per cent, these figures have been suppressed, as they are considered by the ONS as unreliable.Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Forecast: Self-Employed People in Seafood Sector in the UK 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Full-time, part-time and temporary workers, by sex, UK, rolling three-monthly figures published monthly, seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey. These are official statistics in development.

This is the proportion of the working age population (aged 16 to 64) who are in employment according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition. In employment are people who did some paid work in the reference week (whether as an employee or self-employed); those who had a job that they were temporarily away from (e.g. on holiday); those on government-supported training and employment programmes; and those doing unpaid family work. While the source is a rolling annual survey updated quarterly, a given 12-month period should be compared to the matching 12-month period in previous years to obtain valid comparisons. The data for district and unitary authorities is generally taken not directly from the Annual Population Survey but from associated modelled estimates produced by the Office for National Statistics, which provide greater accuracy. >This was previously reported as NI 151.Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Dataset population: Persons aged 16 to 74

Daytime/workday population

England and Wales (Workday Population)

Workday population is where the usually resident population is re-distributed to their places of work, while those not in work are recorded at their usual residence.

The workday population of an area is defined as all usual residents aged 16 and above who are in employment and whose workplace is in the area, and all other usual residents of any age who are not in employment but are resident in the area. People who work mainly at or from home or do not have a fixed place of work are included in their area of their usual residence. The following population groups are excluded from the workday population of an area:

• Those living in England and Wales but working in Scotland, Northern Ireland, outside the UK or on offshore installations,
• Those with a place of work in England and Wales but who are not usually resident in England and Wales, and
• Short-term residents

England and Wales (Workplace Population)

Workplace population is where the usually resident population is re-distributed to their main place of work, but those not working are excluded.

Northern Ireland (Daytime Population)

The daytime population of an area is defined as 'All usual residents who are either in employment or full-time students in the area, or not in employment or full-time students but are usually resident in the area'. People who work or study mainly at or from home, or do not have a fixed place of work or study, are included in the area of their usual residence.

The following population groups are excluded from the daytime population of an area:

• Those living in Northern Ireland but working or studying in England, Wales, Scotland, outside the UK or on offshore installations
• Those with a place of work or study in Northern Ireland but who are not usually resident in Northern Ireland
• Short-term residents

Northern Ireland (Workplace Population)

The workplace population of an area is defined as 'All usual residents aged 16 to 74 who are in employment and whose workplace is in the area'. People who work mainly at or from home or do not have a fixed place of work are included in the area of their usual residence.

The following population groups are excluded from the workplace population of an area:

• Those not working the week before 27 March 2011
• Those living in Northern Ireland but working in England, Wales, Scotland, outside the UK or on offshore installations
• Those with a place of work in Northern Ireland but who are not usually resident in Northern Ireland
• Short-term residents

Economic activity

Economic activity relates to whether or not a person who was aged 16 and over was working or looking for work in the week before census. Rather than a simple indicator of whether or not someone was currently in employment, it provides a measure of whether or not a person was an active participant in the labour market.

A person's economic activity is derived from their 'activity last week'. This is an indicator of their status or availability for employment - whether employed, unemployed, or their status if not employed and not seeking employment. Additional information included in the economic activity classification is also derived from information about the number of hours a person works and their type of employment - whether employed or self-employed.

The census concept of economic activity is compatible with the standard for economic status defined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It is one of a number of definitions used internationally to produce accurate and comparable statistics on employment, unemployment and economic status.