There’s no mystery to the employment figures. Anyone can view the figures from the Office for National Statistics here.

Missing from the captions below are the time headings ranging from August – June 2010 to August 2012, but you can easily get the picture from them anyway.

Somehow, the UK economy is faltering and yet the unemployment figure is falling. Our growth has stopped – it’s often been said, rather disparagingly perhaps, we’ve gone from producing coal to producing Cheryl Cole CDs. We have trouble selling our stuff abroad. Perhaps we should switch measures, and measure happiness instead of Gross National Product – just don’t include the disabled citizens who’ve had their DLA stopped without notice, explanation or notification, and who are unable to protest about it as their local law centre as shut down.

The number of people in people in employment appears to be rising gradually, but the most noticeable aspect is that while the number in full-time employment appears to be largely the same, the number of people in part-time employment or self-employment is rising. That is a significant development.

This means that whilst the economy is not growing some people have given up looking for full-time employment, and tried to establish themselves independently. This will come as no surprise as many have good GCSEs and A levels, and at least a II.1 at University, but cannot get selected for an interview. These people, whilst banks are not lending, are unable to have sufficient income to set up their own private limited company, so become independent contractors instead. They do work as or when they can find it, and overall it’s better than being unemployed. The employers rate this as having a ‘flexible workforce’, and of course avoid the risk of unfair dismissal claims as they are not employees. Of course, it can be argued that some job is better than no job, but these people have no employment rights, and any protection by the Unions as workers or employers becomes out-of-the-question.

So, there you have it. We are simply becoming a nation of independent contractors – armed with our own website, Twitter, or Facebook, we’re not actually producing much, but enough to keep others in some money. We are no longer a nation of shopkeepers, and it’s an unusual situation for sure.