Checking the numbers of how many people in the UK are employed by small businesses shows a 25.2% unemployment rate

[Helmuts]

had a random thought this morning to ask perplexity (as it seems to be the only ai that does both: provides good results and always gives references to the sources): how many people work for small businesses in the UK?

occasionally we hear that in America 60-70% of the jobs are provided by small businesses.. so decided to check the situation here..

the result: 13.1 million people in the UK are employed by small businesses = 48% of all private sector jobs.

then, decided to ask about the gov jobs > got the answer: "As of December 2023, the public sector in the UK employed approximately 5.79 million people, which accounted for 17.5% of the total workforce."

it seemed that somewhere lots of people are lost.. and checked the report https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9366/CBP-9366.pdf that was mentioned by Perplexity as one of the sources for information. Bang! Employment rate in the UK for people aged 16-64 was 74.8% (date of the report = 12 November 2024).

.. holly .. all I wanted to see, as a small business owner, was to check how important to the economy are small businesses.. just to discover that the 25.2% (people aged 16-64 in the UK) are unemployed .. holly

can this be correct? isn't a healthy unemployment rate for a top-tier country below 10% (ideally below 5%)?

.. yes, students need to be removed from this equation.. don't have the numbers at hand and don't want to torture chatgpt .. work needs to be done.. we are working on a cool update here at Acorn

.. some numbers.. huhhh

 

[Helmuts]

in the same report they say that: "In July to September 2024, there were 1.49 million unemployed people in the
UK. The unemployment rate (the percentage of the economically active
population who are unemployed) was 4.3%."

>> page 12 at https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9366/CBP-9366.pdf

though, it seems to get the 25.2% down to 4.3% they did cut off: students in full-time education (this does make 100% sense), retirees or early retirees, stay-at-home parents, People unable to work due to disabilities or other reasons, individuals who are not actively seeking employment..

plain fact = 2.5 out of 10 people (in age when people work) do not work.. huhhh