PeoplePerHour.com in the press

Digital infrastructure’ improves plight of UK’s 2m unemployed

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Press Release: London, 22 January 2009 – Websites like PeoplePerHour.com change the meaning of the term ‘unemployment’ by providing instant ad hoc earning opportunities.

New figures released this week by Ernst & Young warn unemployment will reach 3.25 million by 2010 (The Guardian, 18 January 2009). Yesterday, official figures indicated that UK unemployment had hit 1.92 million – the highest total since September 1997.

However, the UK’s leading freelance marketplace PeoplePerHour.com is providing thousands of unemployed Britons with instant access to work. Unlike traditional recruitment websites which are suffering from the dearth of permanent job openings, PeoplePerHour.com enables its users to bid to work on ad-hoc projects. There are currently over 6,000 projects posted on the site from over 4,000 UK businesses and more than 17,000 registered PeoplePerHour.com service providers.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown recently outlined his goal to create 100,000 new jobs, seeing superfast broadband as vital in addressing the challenge of unemployment:

"When we talk about the roads and the bridges and the railways that were built in previous times – and those were anti-recession measures taken to help people through difficult times – you could [by comparison] talk about the digital infrastructure and that form of communications revolution at a period when we want to stimulate the economy."

During the 1990s recession, national unemployment peaked at approximately 3 million – 10.7% of the working population (The Telegraph, 15 November 2009). Although unemployment figures could top this by 2010, the internet – and particularly sites like PeoplePerHour.com – are offering a viable money-making solution for those out of work.  

Founder of PeoplePerHour.com, Xenios Thrasyvoulou, believes the reach and importance of the internet will continue to grow: “In 2009, we’ll see 1.5 billion people – almost one quarter of the world’s population – accessing the internet regularly. Although the economic outlook appears bleak, the internet puts the UK in a much stronger position to tackle unemployment compared to the 1990s.

“The internet is challenging the traditional notion of ‘national unemployment’. You don’t have to be employed to earn a living any more.”

For further information, photos and interviews, please contact:

Sami McCabe
m: +44 (0) 7789 777 440
t:   +44 (0) 20 8849 8180
e:  sami@forgelondon.com