The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) dug through social security data and found the number of self-employed grew between 2000 and 2015 (the most recent data available).
Their chart below shows the increase in share of earners reporting self-employment earnings.
The EPI article Social Security data confirm same old pattern: Self-employment headcount has risen but economic impact remains small reports 3 key findings from this work and other recent EPI research looking at government data:
- The number of people involved in these types of work activity has increased;
- The increase is primarily among people who are doing so to earn supplementary income and for a short amount of hours. The increase in the various self-employment activities has not occurred in people’s “main job” or as their main source of income; and
- The economic scale of these activities has not changed much when measured as a share of economy-wide total hours worked, earnings, or compensation. While headcount measures of self-employment activity do show a large increase, the overall economic impact of this activity is relatively small in scale and growth.
These findings are consistent with our work, which also shows people who are working part-time in the gig economy to supplement their income are driving the growth in the number of gig workers.
MBO Partners is planning on releasing the 2018 MBO Partners State of Independence report in mid-July. After the report is released (we work with MBO Partners on this study), we'll have more on this topic.
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