Nearly Three in 10 Workers Worldwide Are Self-Employed; Self-employed report lower income, education, and life evaluation.
Byline: Ben Ryan
Synopsis: Nearly three in 10 workers worldwide reported being self-employed in 2013. But rather than a positive sign of proactive entrepreneurial energy, high rates of self-employment in some countries often signal poor economic performance.
WASHINGTON, D. C. -- Eighteen percent of all adults worldwide -- or 29% of the global workforce -- reported being self-employed in 2013. But rather than a positive sign of proactive entrepreneurial energy, high rates of self-employment can often signal poor economic performance. The self-employed are three times as likely as those who are employed full time for an employer to be living on less than $2 per day.
The bulk of the self-employed live in some of the poorest places in the world, where self-employment may be born more out of necessity than opportunity. One in four or more adults in Southeast Asia (28%), East Asia (28%), and sub-Saharan Africa (25%) are self-employed and make up large segments of the region's workforce. The self-employed account for much smaller percentages of the population and workforces in the former Soviet Union (7%), European Union (6%), and Northern America (5%).
Gallup's latest employment status measurements are based on more than 135,000 interviews across 135 countries in 2013 where adults were asked numerous employment questions modeled after those asked by the International Labour Organization (ILO). In line with the ILO standards, Gallup counts adults who work 30 hours or more per week for themselves or their family's business or farm, and do not work 30 hours or more per week for another employer, as self-employed full time.
Gallup tracks the percentage of the population employed full time for an employer (Payroll to Population, or P2P) worldwide because this metric has proven to track closely with overall economic performance.
Part of the reason that Gallup does not include the full-time self-employed in this figure is that this group looks and behaves differently from those employed by an employer. While GDP per capita rises along with the P2P rate, the opposite is true of self-employment.
Self-Employed More Likely to Be Poor, Less Educated
Worldwide, the self-employed report lower incomes than the overall population. They are three times as likely as those employed full time for an employer to be living on less than $2 per day and bring in less than half as much in household income on average. They also rate their lives lower than those...
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