The Reality of Employment vs Self Employment – The Debate

With the number of self-employed people in the UK lower than before COVID, Alfie Robinson investigates why it is becoming more uncommon? 

Being employed. Typically, the usual 9-5 job. Secure wages, sick pay, maternity leave, pension all covered by your employer. Compared to the self-employed, working whenever you can receive jobs, not having the financial security of being able to pay yourself when your ill or wanting to have a family.  

Six years on from the first lockdown caused by coronavirus, life as we knew it has changed and we’ve settled into a new ‘normal’. Working from home is more common and accepted, along with the number of self-employed workers within the UK dropping. 

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that just over 5 million people from November 2019 to January 2020 – when COVID was first detected within the UK- declared as being self-employed, with this figure falling to 4.25 million between June and August 2021, when the third and final national lockdown ended. A decrease of 15%.  

And whilst numbers of self-employed workers have slowly risen, almost 5 years later, the figures are still lower than they were before the coronavirus period.  

These figures surprised Matt Saxon, formerly employed who decided to really start getting into the self-employment world as a photographer, making the decision during the six weeks he was off work in the lockdown period.  

He explained ‘But those It was a psychological revelation for me, because I sort of unburdened myself with all of the stuff that was on my shoulders from my job. And I realised how much it had been controlling me and I had very little control of my own’  

‘I’ve been fortunate that I’ve been able to test the waters in different forms of photography’ Matt explained ‘over the last 18 months, to find out what pays, what sticks and what I really love.’  

That being said, when asked if he would ever go back to work being employed he simply responded ‘Not by choice’.  

Matt spoke passionately about the photography ambitions which he has for his career, which has already ranged from working in casinos, to being a classically trained butcher, and living in Norway to work on oil rigs in the Arctic Circle.  

At the start of his career however, Jacob Dann. A recent graduate from Birmingham City University, with a degree in Sports Journalism which he did during the pandemic.  

As a graduated journalist Jacob has experienced both working for someone else and the life of a freelancer (self-employed journalist) but has noticed that bigger corporations are seemingly offering more roles to freelancers.  

‘There are pretty nice opportunities with the big corporations, like the BBCs and whoever else. They’re offering a lot more but certainly I’m coming across more opportunities in that (freelancing) aspect.’ Jacob explains.  

A recent report from the Reuters Institute, based from Oxford University, highlighted that since 2015, the number of journalists on a permanent contract fell from 75% to 66 % with the numbers of freelance journalists rising from 17% to 28% between 2015 and 2023.  

Covid played a part in this with working from home being more common, something that Jacob thinks is actually very beneficial.  

‘I certainly got a lot out of working from home sand doing home podcasting and writing blog pieces or whatever it might be’ he outlined as he described his university experience.  

‘There was also a lot more sport on the TV at the time because obviously people couldn’t go to the games and every Premier League game was on telly. So there was a lot of more there to write without having to go to sporting events and physically having to be there to write reports.’

The 2023 graduate has had mixed experiences with freelance as he explained ‘I’ve been there (freelance writing) and I’ve seen how quickly it can stop. But I think with other things, freelance is probably going to be a little bit more suited. For example, the actual going out and about journalism because you can sort of be a little bit more free with whether you can go and what you can do.’  

Matt did however highlight the fact that work as a freelancer isn’t easy.  

‘Job security is an issue, because as a photographer I work from one job to the next, so marketing is key and getting work in is important. And it’s not easy, particularly now because nowadays everyone’s a photographer as everyone has a camera on their phone.’ Matt expressed. 

‘I have to compete with that and I’ve got to make people understand and show people the quality of my work and what the difference is between a photo taken on a phone, even if it’s the latest all-singing all-dancing iPhone compared to what I do with my camera. I need to be able to show that difference.’ 

‘I know I’m good at what I do. And as long as I’m marketing and pushing myself right and I’m making the right connections something will come up. But I just need to hang in there and be in the right place at the right time, and in photography, that’s key.’  

Despite these views,, younger people seem to like the idea of employment, more than self employment.