ALMOST one in five workers in parts of Hampshire are their “own boss” after a self-employment boom, new figures show.

Winchester, the New Forest and the Isle of Wight are leading the trend away from traditional jobs.

But Southampton – where 11.9 per cent of workers are self-employed – is in the bottom quarter of a league table of local authority areas.

The new self-employed include management consultants, photographers and chartered accountants, although the most common jobs are still in construction and taxi driving.

The figures were produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), amid growing political controversy over Britain becoming the self-employment capital of western Europe.

Since the financial crash in 2008, two-thirds of the extra jobs created – or 732,000 – have been people working for themselves.

The Government has hailed a growth in people running their own businesses.

A spokeswoman said: “Many people aspire to be their own boss.

“Self-employment has been a growing part of the labour market for the last 30 years, which is why we continue to support entrepreneurs.”

However, the ONS found that the typical weekly income of the self-employed had plunged by almost a quarter since 2008 – from £269 a week to just £207.

That means they are earning only roughly half the wages of those in staff jobs, prompting the TUC to describe the figures as “worrying”.

General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The growth in self-employment is reducing people’s pay, job security and retirement income – and is likely to be reducing the Government’s tax take too.

The lower numbers of “own bosses” in Southampton, compared with the rest of Hampshire, could be explained by the relative ages of the populations.

Many are people working beyond the state pension age – self-employment among the over-65s almost doubled from 241,000 in 2009 to 428,000 in 2014.

Across the country, about 4.6m people work for themselves while another 356,000 people have a second job in which they are self-employed.

The ONS said the economic downturn is likely to have discouraged people from taking up staff positions.

Many are working long hours – 35 per cent of the self-employed work at least 45 hours per week and 12 per cent work at least 60 hours.

Only Gosport has fewer self-employed than Southampton, while the rate was also high in Test Valley.