Despite the economy shrinking, more people have started their own businesses.

People planning to start a recruitment company will be encouraged by new statistics from Kensington Mortgages, which show that there are five million self employed workers in the UK.

A quarter of these entrepreneurs have been self-employed for less than two years, meaning 1.2 million people started working for themselves over the last 24 months when the economy shrunk for six consecutive quarters.

The company, which polled 2,000 self-employed people found that 600,000 individuals (12 per cent) have been their own boss for less than 12 months.

"I'm sure we all know somebody who has harboured ambitions of being their own boss and only taken the opportunity to do so when their employer has started to make cut backs," said Charles Morley of Kensington Mortgages.

"Many of these people are now enjoying very successful businesses of their own."

Recruitment professionals were recently encouraged by their peer on LinkedIn not to be afraid of setting up their own company if they want to enjoy making money for themselves.