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US self-employed statistics

September 2011

Just how many self-employed are there in the USA?

We've collated here the best available figures we would find. The number of self-employed depends on the definition used and which people are captured by the data.



Answer 1: Self-employed = 40 million [2010-11] (26% of US workforce)
    Source A (2011): USA Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax returns of people who fill out 1099 forms. 1099 workers are people who don't have 'regular jobs' but work on contract for multiple clients. They are not employees and are not covered by unemployment insurance. Their numbers have increased from 2001 when they formed about 19% of the workforce.

    Source B (2010): Kelly Services conducted a global survey of workers in May 2010 and found that 26% of North American workers were self-employed.
The 1099 workers probably give the most accurate account of self-employed individuals---even over that of the official labour statistics---because those statistics exclude large numbers of individuals from the data (see below).

Here's a statistical breakdown of 1099 workers by each US state.

Answer 2: Self-employed = 22 million [2007]
    Source: The National Association of Self-Employed draws its statistics from the US Census data of business and non-employing individuals (independent contractors). Its analysis states that, from 1997 to 2006, self-employed numbers grew 3.3% per year (from 15 million to 20.7 million, then to 21.7 million by 2007) compared to all other business growth of about 1.1% a year. It has a map showing the number of self-employed by state.
The NASE also notes that
  • 4.7 million firms have 1-10 employees
  • 0.6 million firms have 10-19 employees
On this basis, it means that 5.3 million self-employed people are employers and a huge 16.7 million work for themselves but don't employ anyone (independent contractors).

Answer 3: Self-employed = 14.2 million [2002] (10% of US workforce)
    Source: Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS) combined with Bureau of Census. These figures are considerably below those of the 1099 workers stated by the IRS. This is possibly explained by the fact that the BLS does not, it appears, include in the data non-employer individuals operating small, unincorporated business.
Comment
The figures from the IRS of 1099 workers (40 million) is probably the most reliable indicator of the number of self-employed people in the USA. It may overstate the figures because many 1099 workers could be employees at law of the (multiple) clients they work for. However, even if this were the case at law, their behaviour (that is, working for many clients) certainly means that they are not traditional employees in any respect.

Labour Left denial
In a commentary on Obama's jobs package, the Workers' World website claims that only 7% of full time workers are self-employed. They say that 93% of US workers rely on a pay-check, demonstrating a huge rise in the 'proletariat'.

Total US workforce
Bureau of Labor Statistics, August 2011
  • Total Labour force 154 million
  • Unemployed 14 million (9.1%)
Other data
  • US population 306.5 million
  • Military workforce 1.5 million (approx)
  • Elderly 43 million (65yrs +)
  • Stay-at-home mums/dads 48 million
  • Children 73 million (under 18yrs)