Large employers have biggest slice of jobs

The contention that small businesses provide most of the jobs in the UK is not actually born out by the figures, according to Paul Sellers writing on the TUC’s Touchstone blog.

Rumours of the demise of big firms are premature. In fact, almost half of private sector employees (49.7%) still work for large businesses (those employing 250 people or more). Around a third of the private sector workforce (34.8%) work for small businesses (one to 49 employees), while medium-sized businesses (50-249 employees) account for just 15.5%

Without underplaying the contributions that small enterprises make to the UK economy, Sellers also points to the fact that three-quarter or 3.4 million UK businesses are sole traders – that is, they consist of one self-employed person working alone and will not expand their employee numbers beyond that.

It would appear then that all the protestations from the coalition about red tape stifling small business expansion and the creation of jobs lack merit.

Finally, Sellers says, add the public sector into the equation, and it is the case that just 8,600 enterprises account for 52.2% of all UK employees.

http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2012/04/big-business-still-provides-most-employee-jobs/