Self-employment among young people – prevalence and outcomes

Key insights

The findings indicate there is entrepreneurial interest, but that doesn’t always convert into self-employment, suggesting there are barriers to young people entering self-employmentRead more about

Among currently employed 16 to 25-year-old, a third of males and a fifth of females report wanting to start a business.
In people up to the age of 30 who are unemployed, close to 1 in 5 have plans to start a business.
Longitudinal educational outcomes data for those completing key stage 4 in 2014 found 6.9% of males and 2.8% of females were self-employed by age 23, often in combination with employment. Most of the young people moving into self-employment were previously employed.
From UK survey data on 16 to 21-year-olds, the likelihood of future self-employment is 37% for males and 32% for females, which is higher than the proportion who go on to become self-employed.

There are a group of young people outside the labour market who may benefit from support to enter self-employmentRead more about

Although interest levels are similar across UK-born and non-UK-born individuals, individuals whose mother was born abroad are more likely to intend to start a business within the next three years, as are those whose father was self-employed.
Among under-30s, 31% of Pakistani males are self-employed, higher than any other ethnicity.
Self-employment is more common among people with a health problem that limits the amount or type of work that can be done.

For those who do become self-employed, there are benefitsRead more about

Levels of job satisfaction are higher amongst self-employed people than those who are employed.
Levels of job-related anxiety and depression are lower for self-employed people, than those who are employed, especially for females.
For those aged under 25, average earnings for self-employed young people are higher than their employed peers. However, by age 24 – 34, paid employment is more lucrative than self-employment.

Other findings to noteRead more about

Self-employed business closures amongst 18 to 25 year olds are often due to personal reasons or having another job or business opportunity.
Limited companies set up by young people who have the support of older relatives as co-directors, see longer-term survival rates than those set up solely by young people.This suggests that young people may benefit from the support and experience of others.

Next steps

These findings, together with those from the consultations with young people and employers and the targeted rapid evidence assessment, have been used to design an outline of a support intervention for self-employment for young people.

To understand if this works in practice as a self-employment support intervention for young people, the next steps would be to fully develop, implement and test the model.

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Self-employment impact evaluation

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Self-employment among young people – prevalence and outcomes

Authors

Partners

University of Westminster

About

Working with Youth Futures

Overview

Key insights

Next steps

Want to read the full publication?

More about the programme

Questions about the publication?

Discover more from the project

Self-employment pathway – intervention model

Self-employment feasibility study: consultation findings

Self-employment feasibility study: Targeted Rapid Evidence Assessment

Self-employment among young people – prevalence and outcomes

Authors

Partners

University of Westminster

About

Working with Youth Futures

Overview

Key insights

Next steps

Want to read the full publication?

More about the programme

Questions about the publication?

Self-employment pathway – intervention model

Self-employment feasibility study: consultation findings

Self-employment feasibility study: Targeted Rapid Evidence Assessment

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