Decline or Distribution?

IPA data on the reduction of headcount doesn't paint a full picture of where talent lives any more.

Yesterday's IPA data on the agency workforce reported almost 15% decline in headcounts. But does that mean the workforce is shrinking?

What the data doesn't show is where that talent is going. Our data from the end of last year saw an uptick in the number of people stepping into self-employment (not always by choice).

There's an explosion in people creating new businesses, consulting, freelancing, along with more and more new models, microstudios, collectives, indy agencies, and all sorts of different shapes of things.

So, is this a decline or a reshaping and redistribution of the workforce?

I'd be interested in talking with folks in industry bodies to see how we can better represent the total workforce in data like this, not just employees.

Our ability to get an accurate picture of our people is declining, if we're not including the diversity of ways of working in our industry.

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Meet Matthew Knight: The Chief Freelance Officer

Matthew Knight is an independent strategist, and founder of The Independency Co.

For ten years, he's been a vocal advocate for freelancers and improved ways of working with independents.

Founder of the award winning Leapers project - supporting over 250,000 freelancers, he writes regularly on the topic of independent work and has featured in titles including Freelancing Magazine, Design Week, Creative Bite, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Future Trends, Courier and the BBC.

He is a member of the Mental Health at Work Leadership Council, and has contributed to a number of government panels on the topic of independent work.

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The Independency Co.

Creating confidence in freelancing.

Our work supports both freelancers and hirers to work better, together.

Whether it’s our award winning mental health project Leapers, our free resources on freelancing.support, or our communities like Outside Perspective - we’ve been making freelancing work better for almost ten years.

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The Independency Co. is a trading name of Foxlark Strategy Limited.
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About The Independency Co.

The Independency Co. is a UK organisation dedicated to making freelancing work better. Founded by Matthew Knight and operating as a trading name of Foxlark Strategy Limited, it works across freelancer support, community infrastructure, policy advocacy, and hirer education.

Its projects include Leapers — an award-winning mental health initiative that has supported over 250,000 freelancers — and freelancing.support, a free daily-updated resource for UK independent workers. Outside Perspective is a curated peer community for independent strategists. Manual of Me is a team working tool used by organisations to improve onboarding, remote collaboration, and freelancer relationships.

Matthew Knight chairs the Independency Community Coalition, a collective of 12 UK freelancing communities with over 16,500 members. He is a member of Mind UK's Mental Health at Work Leadership Council and a contributor to parliamentary working groups on independent work and freelancer policy. He has been cited in The Guardian, Bloomberg, the BBC, and Freelancing Magazine, among others.

The Independency Co. is based in Twickenham and serves freelancers, hirers, and community leaders across the UK.