'Knowledge-preneurs': Self-employment in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Industry

Amid the dynamics of the labour market in the 1990's, two growth areas stand out: self-employment (when analyzed by class of worker) and knowledge industries (when analyzed by sector). In this paper, we combine these two perspectives to explore self-employment in the Professional, Scientific and Technical Services Industry (NAICS group 5400 -- roughly equivalent to the Business Services Sector of SIC). Using data from the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics, we examine our target population against two control groups: paid workers in the industry, and self-employed in other service industries. The main measure used is median earnings, along with interquartile ranges to describe the earnings distribution. For the study, earnings are defined as being the sum of wages and salaries, non-farm self-employment income, and an adjustment for dividends drawn by self-employed persons with an incorporated business. Using this framework, the article explores the following topics: occupation (including differences between those with and without paid help/supervisory responsibilities), education and experience, demographics (sex, age, immigration, family), residence (region, province), hours of work (including full-time/part-time), moonlighting (multiple job holders, and stratum jumpers), job change and stability (business start-ups and deaths), work at home, and stress/health issues. Additional search terms: • labour and income (employees, employers, employment, labour force characteristics, demographics, class of worker, salaries and wages, dividends, entrepreneur, knowledge worker, human capital, skills) • business (professional services, legal services, accounting, management, advertising, business consulting, architecture, engineering, surveying and mapping, design, scientific research and development, scientific and technical consulting, business start-ups, business failures, service sector, services sector)