Umbrella company contractors may be interested to hear that new research has revealed that the contracting community is ‘cautiously optimistic’ with regards to prospects over the coming year.
This is according to a report, The Freelancer Confidence Index’, carried out by the IPSE (Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed) and Elance-oDesk, which found that UK contractors are confident that the number of contracts available will grow, but revenue will remain the same.
Among some of the findings, the research revealed that the number of freelance contracts is continuing to grow with momentum, and that business performance accelerated in Q4 of 2014, with quarterly income increasing by 7.4% on the previous quarter.
However, overall confidence amongst contractors is cautious for 2015, with the report suggesting that this could be due to additional factors such as uncertainty around the General Election.
Suneeta Johal, Research Manager at IPSE and co-author of The Freelancer Confidence Index, said, “The survey shows a strong end to 2014 with freelance businesses performing well. The results suggest the number of contracts will continue to grow and capacity for freelancers will increase as demand for services rises.
“However, business confidence among freelancers has fallen and the general perception is the economy will perform only marginally better in 2015, although their own businesses will remain stable.
Hayley Conick, Country Manager for Elance-oDesk in the UK, added, “A key finding from this research was that the freelancers working via online workplaces showed higher levels of confidence in regard to their future earnings prospects. These innovative professionals are less dependent on physical location and are therefore taking advantage of a broader amount of opportunities – especially as businesses increasingly use the Internet to find talent."
Simon Dolan is the Sales & Marketing Manager for Contractor Umbrella Ltd, one of the UK’s Most Respected Umbrella Companies and founder member of AllUmbrellaCompaniesAreEqual.
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