Yorkshire named as UK’s contracting hotspot

A recent study carried out by PeoplePerHour has revealed that Yorkshire has the largest amount of active contractors than anywhere else in the country.

According to the report, four Yorkshire towns and cities – Bradford, Sheffield, Halifax and Huddersfield – saw a huge rise in contractor activity during 2012.

Within the past 12 months, Bradford alone has seen the amount of contractors more than double, as the study found there were 165% more people contracting in the area than in 2011, which has resulted in the city coming top of the “freelancer league table”.

The PeoplePerHour research interestingly found that there was some divide in terms of the north and south of the country.  For example, Sheffield (139%), Halifax (123%), Liverpool (135%), Manchester (130%) and Dundee (132%) were among the parts of the UK to see a growth in contractors. 

However, there were no cities in the south or East of England in the top 10, with only one city in the Midlands, Leicester (146%), which has experienced the second biggest rise in the number of contractors.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder and chief executive of PeoplePerHour, said, “The north of England has been particularly badly hit during the recession, but these figures suggest that the north has a pool of highly skilled workers who are not realising their potential, and have decided that the flexibility of working as a freelancer will provide them with more opportunities.

“For those people who make the decision to freelance, it may simply be to make some extra money to top up their main salary. For others though, what starts out as a few hours of extra work here and there, can quickly turn into a fully-fledged business. With the right platform, the freelancer of today, is the budding entrepreneur of the future; and making it easier for people to start a business, can only be good news for the UK economy.”

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