Self-employment

The share of employed people who work for themselves is still largely below pre-crisis levels across the OECD, a group of mostly rich countries. Self-employment rates in America, Australia, Germany and Poland are about a tenth lower than they were in early 2007; declines in Portugal, South Korea and Turkey have been bigger. There is no clear link between the self-employment rate and the state of the labour market. The self-employment rate in jobs-rich Britain has been flourishing. But it has also risen in France, where unemployment is high. Greek and Spanish self-employment rates are back to pre-crisis levels, even though their labour markets have taken a fearful battering in the past few years.