The pandemic has unleashed a historic burst in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are striking out on their own as consultants, retailers and small-business owners.<\/p>\n
The move helps explain the ongoing shake-up in the world of work, with more people looking for flexibility, anxious about covid exposure, upset about vaccine mandates or simply disenchanted with pre-pandemic office life. It is also aggravating labor shortages in some industries and adding pressure on companies to revamp their employment policies.<\/p>\n
The number of unincorporated self-employed workers has risen by 500,000 since the start of the pandemic, Labor Department data show, to 9.44 million. That is the highest total since the financial-crisis year 2008, except for this summer. The total amounts to an increase of 6% in the self-employed, while the overall U.S. employment total remains nearly 3% lower than before the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Entrepreneurs applied for federal tax-identification numbers to register 4.54 million new businesses from January through October this year, up 56% from the same period of 2019, Census Bureau data show. That was the largest number on records that date back to 2004. Two-thirds were for businesses that aren\u2019t expected to hire employees.<\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cTake this job and…\u201d Workers in droves are choosing to become self-employed. https:\/\/t.co\/CRps3v1CsD<\/a> via @WSJ<\/a><\/p>\n — Stanton Winder (@WinderStanton) November 29, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n