In his rant on the self-employed, John Harris (Comment, 22 January) cited Napoleon and ended up with his own editorial Waterloo as he battled to belittle "odd-jobbers" like taxi drivers, security guards, CCTV operatives and hairdressers. He should have looked beyond the report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development at the professionals from a wide variety of sectors, including oil and gas, engineering, information technology, management consultancy, marketing, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, and the media. These are men and women who consider themselves freelancers, self-employed, skilled and professional. Recent research by Kingston University for PCG, the UK's largest organisation representing this sector, showed freelancing has grown strongly in the past decade. The past three years has seen a 12% growth among independent professionals alone; these are not vulnerable workers but drivers of economic growth in the UK. The figures confirm a widely held belief that more skilled and talented individuals are opting for freelancing as a work/lifestyle choice and also as a result of turbulent economic circumstances. Freelancers offer industry and commerce a flexible talent stream when and where it's needed. A fact recognised by the prime minister, Scotland's first minister and a host of business and other political figures, but sadly, not by John Harris.
John Brazier
Managing director, PCG
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