The Case for Self-Employment
by Richard Kirtley, Nov 14th 2025
Unemployment is on the rise. According to a recent BBC News article, the number of people out of work in the UK is climbing again, with hundreds of thousands classed as “economically inactive.” It’s a familiar story where people who want to work but can’t find something that fits, or who’ve given up trying altogether. Yet what’s rarely discussed is why so many people are aren’t engaging with the workforce. The problem, as we see it, isn’t just a lack of jobs; it’s the kind of work on offer. Too often, the roles available are insecure, underpaid, and devoid of meaning. When “getting people into work” simply means shuttling them into warehouse shifts or call centres with no future, we have to ask “what exactly are we achieving?”
The Changing Nature of Work: From Jobs to Just “Work”
In today’s economy, one of the enduring paradoxes is this: while there are countless jobs, many of them feel utterly void of meaning. On one hand, rising unemployment and economic inactivity highlight people who are not working; on the other hand, many who are working describe their labour as disconnected, pointless or even demoralising.
Anthropologist David Graeber coined the term “bullsh*t jobs” to describe paid employment that the person doing it believes to be unnecessary or pointless. Recent empirical work, for example from the University of Cambridge and University of Birmingham, finds that while the proportion of workers who feel their job is useless is lower than Graeber’s original claims, doing work you believe lacks purpose nevertheless correlates with lower wellbeing.
But why does this matter? Because the link between work, identity, dignity and social belonging remains strong. Being employed should be about much more than earning income. It should be about making a contribution, being part of a team, feeling useful. When you lose that, or when the job you have seems to lack real purpose, the consequences are psychological, social and material.
The Hidden Strain of Long-Term Joblessness
For those who are unemployed, and especially those who have been out of work for a long time, the barriers to re-entry are not just practical issues but are rooted in their humanity. Joblessness eats away at confidence and structure. The longer someone is out of work, the harder it becomes to find an employer willing to take a chance. Skills fade, social networks shrink, and the routines that once gave life stability begin to crumble.
Even when jobs become available, many of them are insecure, poorly paid, or lack prospects for growth. The rise of zero-hours contracts and precarious employment means that “getting back into work” doesn’t always mean getting back into stability. It can instead trap people in cycles of low-quality work that do little to restore confidence or wellbeing. The result is a system where many people are either locked out of the job market entirely or find themselves cycling through roles that offer neither security nor satisfaction.
The psychological impact of this is immense. Feelings of shame, failure, and isolation grow over time, especially when society tends to frame unemployment as a personal flaw rather than a structural problem. For some, the very idea of returning to work becomes a source of anxiety — a constant reminder of a system that seems to value their labour less and less.
When Work Loses Its Meaning
Even among those in employment, the sense of fulfillment that work once offered seems to be eroding. Jobs that were once vocational tied to craft, service, or a clear purpose have often been replaced by layers of administration, compliance, and box-ticking. The modern workplace can feel increasingly disconnected from tangible outcomes. Technology has automated the most meaningful parts of some jobs, while bureaucracy has inflated the least meaningful.
I witnessed this disconnect first-hand not long ago at a job fair where I’d been asked to run a stand about Purple Shoots. A woman approached and asked what we did. I explained how we support people to start their own small businesses, and she listened politely before saying, “Oh, self-employment isn’t for me.”
“Absolutely,” I replied, “it isn’t for everyone. What would you like to do?”
She paused for a moment, then said, “Do you know, honestly, I want to work in health care, maybe as an assistant on the wards, or even train as a nurse.” I told her that sounded brilliant, encouraged her to explore that route, and suggested a few local options for getting started.
As she moved on, she stopped at the stand next to mine, where a recruiter, who had overheard our entire conversation, quickly interjected: “Well, I can get you working in a warehouse next week if you’d like.”
That moment has stayed with me. Here was someone who knew exactly what kind of work would give her life meaning, caring for others, contributing something tangible, and yet the system around her was only equipped to offer expediency, not purpose. And truthfully, even that promise of expediency doesn’t hold up. Warehouses are often miles from where people live, hard to reach by public transport, and operate on gruelling shift patterns that make family life or training impossible. Was that warehouse role “a job”? Yes. But was it meaningful, sustainable, or remotely life-giving? I would say no.
The Rise of “Meaningless” Jobs – What’s Going On?
The rise of meaningless work has several distinct characteristics. Increasingly, people find themselves in jobs that seem to lack any clear impact. These are roles where even the employees themselves feel that their tasks are unnecessary, or that no one outside the organisation would notice if their job quietly disappeared. This isn’t about laziness or cynicism; it’s about the growing mismatch between what people are capable of and what they are actually asked to do. As Vox described in its review of David Graeber’s work, many people are stuck performing tasks that seem to exist only to preserve appearances; the concept of ‘busywork’ that serves bureaucracy rather than purpose.
At the same time, the modern workplace has seen an explosion of administrative, procedural, and middle-layer roles. Many of these positions are designed to support production or service delivery but, in practice, often end up complicating processes rather than improving them. The result is a sprawling bureaucracy that keeps people busy without necessarily creating value, a system that prizes activity over achievement and leaves little room for creativity or autonomy.
This disconnection between work and meaning has measurable effects. Research from the University of Cambridge shows that people who believe their job is not useful score significantly lower on wellbeing scales. When individuals feel that their daily efforts don’t matter, it chips away at both morale and mental health, creating a quiet epidemic of disillusionment across entire sectors.
Technology has also played its part. Automation, outsourcing, and the hollowing out of roles have transformed the structure of work. Many jobs have been broken down into smaller, more repetitive components, leaving behind tasks that no longer demand the full range of human skill or creativity. Workers often find themselves under-utilised, performing functions that feel mechanical or easily replaceable, a by-product of an economy increasingly designed around efficiency rather than fulfilment.
The result is a strange paradox: people can have a job and yet not feel like they belong anywhere. Work that provides only a wage, without purpose, progression, or identity, quickly becomes hollow. The fundamental promise of employment, that it offers not only income but also connection, dignity, and growth, is quietly being eroded.
Self-Employment: A Pathway to Purpose
If traditional employment no longer guarantees dignity or progress, perhaps the answer lies elsewhere. For many people, particularly those who have been long-term unemployed, self-employment can offer a route back not only to prosperity, but to purpose.
Becoming self-employed is not just about making money alone, but is about reclaiming agency. It allows people to decide what matters, to build something that aligns with their own values and strengths. For someone who has spent years being told “no” by employers, starting a small business can be a powerful “yes” to themselves. It creates space for flexibility, essential for those with caring responsibilities, health conditions, or simply a different rhythm of life. It also opens the door to community impact, especially when businesses are rooted locally and designed to serve the people around them.
Running a small enterprise builds skills that go far beyond the job description: problem-solving, budgeting, communication, leadership, and resilience. Each decision taken, however small, reinforces a sense of ownership and growth. For organisations like Purple Shoots, which support self-employment and Self-Reliant Groups across the UK, the evidence is clear – when people are trusted to lead their own path, transformation happens from the inside out.
Of course, self-employment isn’t without its challenges. The financial risks are real, the workload can be intense, and the line between freedom and insecurity is thin. Not everyone wants to or can start a business. But for many who have been excluded from conventional employment, it offers a way to rebuild confidence, contribute meaningfully, and participate in their local economies on their own terms.
A Better Vision for Work
If we are serious about tackling joblessness, we must move beyond the narrow aim of simply “creating jobs.” We need to ask what kind of work helps people flourish and what builds both prosperity and purpose.
A better future of work would focus on meaning, agency, and community connection. It would recognise that self-employment, micro-enterprise, and cooperative models can sit alongside traditional employment to create a more resilient economy. It would see unemployment not as a failure of individuals but as a signal that our systems are failing to use people’s talents well.
Organisations like Purple Shoots are helping to build that future, seeding small enterprises, supporting peer-led groups, and proving that prosperity grows strongest when it starts from the ground up.
We see weekly that when people are given the chance to work with purpose, not just for pay, the benefits ripple out far beyond the individual. They build stronger families, stronger communities, and a stronger sense of hope.
In the end, the goal isn’t simply to reduce unemployment figures. It’s to make sure that everyone, wherever they start from, has the chance to do work that matters to themselves, and to the world around them.