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　Self-employment
　　
　　自主创业
　　
　　The Uber conundrum
　　
　　优步迷局
　　
　　Why more Britons are working for themselves
　　
　　为什么越来越多的英国人选择为自己工作
　　
　　IT WAS supposed to be a blip. When theglobal financial crisis swept over Britain in 2008, the number of self-employedworkers jumped. Many economists concluded that one explained the other: aspeople were made redundant and then struggled to find a new job, the argumentwent, they had little choice but to it alone. But this interpretation makesrecent data puzzling. Britain has been out of recession for six years andunemployment has fallen to 5.4%. Yet the number of self-employed workers isstill 700,000 higher than in 2008. No other member of the G7 has behaved inquite the same way (see chart).
　　
　　自主就业潮本该只是昙花一现。当2008年全球经融危机席卷整个英国时，英国个体创业者数量增长。很多经济学家得出一种解释：当同一时间太多人同时都在找工作就会出现问题，他们很难找到工作，所以只好单干。但是这种说法不能解释最近的数据。英国已经摆脱萧条6年之久，失业率也降至5.4%。但至今自雇人士数量还是比2008年多了70 万。其他G7成员国并没有表现出这样的就业形势。
　　
　　The rise of the “gig economy” is onereason. Platforms like Uber, a taxi-hailing app, and PeoplePerHour, a websitewhere freelancers hawk their professional skills, liberate people from theiremployers’ clutches. Britons are especially suited to this brave new world.They are digital devotees, with one of the highest rates of mobile-phonesubscriptions in the rich world (at 124 per 100 people). And with comparativelystrong economic growth in recent years, the country is a tempting place fortech firms to start up. The number of “private hire” vehicles in London, acatery that includes Uber taxis, has risen by 26% in the past two years.
　　
　　零工经济的兴起是一部分原因。像优步这样的打车应用软件和PeoplePerHour网站都为自由职业者兜售其专业技能提供了平台，摆脱了雇主的掌控。英国人尤其适应这个勇敢的新世界。他们是数码狂热者，平均每个人拥有1.24台手机，这在发达国家使用手机比率中最高。近年来随着有竞争力的经济增长，英国吸引了越来越多的科技公司纷纷成立。近两年来，伦敦包括优步的士在内的专车数量上升了26%。
　　
　　Yet the gig economy cannot be the onlyexplanation for the growth in self-employment—after all, back in 2008 no oneused a smartphone app to hire a cleaner or a cab. Demography may be moreimportant. In 2008-15 the labour-force participation rate of women aged 16-59increased from 74% to 76%, a rise of about 600,000. With the femaleparticipation rate already high by international standards, those womenentering the workforce from 2008 onwards were likely to be those who had foundit particularly difficult to work as employees (say, because of familycommitments). They may have preferred the flexibility of self-employment,suggests a paper from the Bank of England. About half of the extra jobs takenup by women in 2008-15 were self-employed ones, in industries like social care.During this period the female self-employment rate rose from 8% to 10%.
　　
　　现在自主就业的增加已经不能用零工经济来解释了，毕竟在2008年以前没有人会用一个手机软件来雇佣一个清洁工，或者叫一辆出租车。人口统计学也许更加重要。在2008年到2015年，16岁到59岁之间的女性劳动力从74%增加到了76%，大概增加了60万人。因为按国际标准来说女性劳动力的参与率已经很高了，那些在2008年已经进入自主就业劳动大军的女性很可能是发现了作为一个雇员特别困难（或是说因为家庭原因）。英国银行发表的文章中表示，她们也许是更加喜欢自主创业者的灵活性。从2008年到2015年，女性从事的额外工作中大概有一半的工作都是自主就业，比如像社会护理行业。在这段期间，女性自主就业率从8%提高到了10%。
　　
　　Another demographic factor plays a part.Older workers, who have the most experience, as well as savings to fall backon, are more likely to be lone rangers than the young. The financial crisis hitjust as there was a jump in the number of people over the age of 65; havingheld steady at about 16% of the population for two decades, after 2008 itstarted to rise sharply and now sits at 18%. As baby-boomers moved intoretirement, many wanted a change of pace. Half of the increase inself-employment between 2004 and 2014 was linked to the ageing of theworkforce, according to the Bank of England paper.
　　
　　另外一个普查数据部分也解释了这个现象。一些拥有丰富经验且有储蓄依傍的年长员工与年轻人相比，他们更喜欢一个人做事。2008年的金融危机来袭对年龄超过65岁的的人群也带来了转变；原本在十十年中稳定地占自主就业人口16%的年龄层，在金融危机后这个数字开始急剧上升到目前的18%。当婴儿潮一代临近退休，他们中的许多人都想寻求一种改变。据英国银行报报道，从2004年到2014新增的自雇人士中有半数是由于劳动力老龄化.
　　
　　But there is a wrinkle. The proportion ofover-65s who are self-employed has sharply risen too. This may be down toworries about financial security in retirement, says Laura Gardiner of theResolution Foundation, a think-tank. In recent years British pension funds haveseen measly investment returns, thanks in part to rock-bottom interest rates.Britain has one of the lowest “replacement rates” in the OECD, a club of mostlyrich countries; on average its pensions replace only 40% of pre-retirementearnings. In a survey by Saga, which sells services to the elderly, one in sixover-50s said they had been forced to put off retirement indefinitely.
　　
　　这里还有一个转变。65岁以上的自雇人士所占比例也急剧上升。决议基金会智囊团的劳拉·加德纳（Laura Gardiner）说，这是由于人们担心退休后的金融安全问题引起的。近年来,英国退休年金基金的回报少得可怜，这部分可以归责于英国银行最低利息率。英国在最富裕国家的游乐场——欧洲经济合作组织中“替代率”是最低的；平均的退休年金只是他们退休前收入的40%。向中老年人出售服务的机构Saga做过调查，有六分之一的50岁以上的人表示他们的退休时期被迫延长。
　　
　　All this means that even if the state ofthe labour market continues to improve, self-employment is unlikely to fallback to pre-recession levels. This worries some economists. Youngerself-employed people tend not to put enough away for the future (only one-thirdof the self-employed have any kind of pension, for instance, compared withone-half of employees). And since they also tend to be far less productive, payis lower. The last thing the economy needs is a swelling army of badly paidworkers. But self-employment has its od sides: for instance, job satisfactiontends to be higher. And if a big chunk of Britain’s self-employed wouldotherwise not be working at all, as seems to be the case, the country’s growingfreelance habit may be no bad thing.
　　
　　所有的这些都意味着即使劳动力市场持续改善，自主就业也不太可能回落到经济衰退之前的水平。这让部分经济学家有些担忧。年轻的自主就业人员往往不会太为未来打算（仅有三分之一的自主就业人员有至少一种养老金，而雇员则一半的数量有养老金）。而且由于他们的生产力较低，薪资也会比较低。经济中最不需要的就是支付冗杂人员的多余薪酬。但自主就业有它好的一面：工作满意度会较高。若英国很大一部分自主就业人员都不工作，以这样的假设来看，该国日益增长的自由职业者的情况也不是一件坏事。

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