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Business Owners and the Self-Employed: Thirty-Three Million (And Counting!)

In: The Changing Nature of Work

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Goetz
  • Henry Hyatt
  • Zachary Kroff
  • Kristin Sandusky
  • Martha Stinson

Abstract

Entrepreneurs are known to be key drivers of economic growth, and the rise of online platforms and the broader "gig economy" has led self-employment to surge in recent decades. Yet the young and small businesses associated with this activity are often absent from economic data. In this paper, we explore a novel longitudinal dataset that covers the owners of tens of millions of the smallest businesses: those without employees. We produce three new sets of statistics on the rapidly growing set of nonemployer businesses. First, we measure transitions between self-employment and wage and salary jobs. Second, we describe nonemployer business entry and exit, as well as transitions between legal form (e.g., sole proprietorship to S corporation). Finally, we link owners to their nonemployer businesses and examine the dynamics of business ownership.
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Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Goetz & Henry Hyatt & Zachary Kroff & Kristin Sandusky & Martha Stinson, 2025. "Business Owners and the Self-Employed: Thirty-Three Million (And Counting!)," NBER Chapters, in: The Changing Nature of Work, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberch:15172
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adela Luque & Vitaliy Novik, 2024. "Garage Entrepreneurs or just Self-Employed? An Investigation into Nonemployer Entrepreneurship," Working Papers 24-61, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    2. Christopher Goetz & Zachary Kroff, 2021. "Recent Improvements to the Integrated Longitudinal Business Database (ILBD)," CES Technical Notes Series 21-02, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Andrew Garin & Emilie Jackson & Dmitri Koustas, 2025. "New Gig Work or Changes in Reporting? Understanding Self-Employment Trends in Tax Data," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 236-270, July.
    4. Ryan Decker & John Haltiwanger & Ron Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2014. "The Role of Entrepreneurship in US Job Creation and Economic Dynamism," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(3), pages 3-24, Summer.
    5. Lee Tucker & Moises Yi & Filip Babalievsky & Hubert P. Janicki & Stephen R. Tibbets & Lawrence Warren, 2024. "Revisions to the LEHD Establishment Imputation Procedure and Applications to Administrative Job Frame," Working Papers 24-51, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    6. Andrew Garin & Emilie Jackson & Dmitri Koustas, 2022. "Is Gig Work Changing the Labor Market? Key Lessons from Tax Data," National Tax Journal, University of Chicago Press, vol. 75(4), pages 791-816.
    7. Katharine G. Abraham & John C. Haltiwanger & Claire Hou & Kristin Sandusky & James R. Spletzer, 2021. "Reconciling Survey and Administrative Measures of Self-Employment," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(4), pages 825-860.
    8. John Haltiwanger & Ron S. Jarmin & Javier Miranda, 2013. "Who Creates Jobs? Small versus Large versus Young," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(2), pages 347-361, May.
    9. Hyatt Henry & Murray Seth & Kristin Sandusky L., 2021. "Business Income Dynamics and Labor Market Fluidity," IZA Journal of Labor Economics, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-51, January.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • J63 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Turnover; Vacancies; Layoffs
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure

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