How Many Americans Are Self-Employed?
The benefits of being self-employed are clear—work flexibility, not having to answer to a boss, getting to choose the work you want to do, and more.
If you’re thinking about becoming a self-employed worker in the US, it helps to get an overview of the trends and statistics about self-employment—more specifically, understand how many Americans are self-employed.
Number of self-employed in the US: March 2023–March 2024
Here’s the number of self-employed over the past 12 months:
|
Month |
Number of self-employed in the US |
|---|---|
|
Mar 2023 |
9.82 million |
|
Apr 2023 |
9.79 million |
|
May 2023 |
9.41 million |
|
Jun 2023 |
9.60 million |
|
Jul 2023 |
9.51 million |
|
Aug 2023 |
9.52 million |
|
Sep 2023 |
9.74 million |
|
Oct 2023 |
9.66 million |
|
Nov 2023 |
9.72 million |
|
Dec 2023 |
10.01 million |
|
Jan 2024 |
9.77 million |
|
Feb 2024 |
10.03 million |
|
Mar 2024 |
10.18 million |
According to the latest figures from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), as of March 2024, the number of self-employed people in the US is 10.18 million. This represents a 1.5% increase from the previous month and a 3.68% annual increase. It is also the highest number recorded so far in 2024.
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The number of self-employed in the US has been fluctuating over the past year. In March 2023, there were 9.82 million self-employed. This fell in April 2023, to 9.79 million, and dipped further to 9.41 million the following month. This was followed by more months of fluctuations, as the number of self-employed in the US rose to 9.74 million in September, before falling to 9.66 the following month. It closed the year out at just over 10 million self-employed individuals in December.
In 2023, the average number of self-employed in the US per month was 9.73 million—a 1.45% fall from the previous year’s 9.87 million.
COVID-19 pandemic impact on the number of self-employed in the US
In 2020, the number of self-employed in the US tumbled as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The lowest number recorded was in April 2020. At 8.25 million, this was an 11% year-over-year decrease, and the first time the number of self-employed workers in the US fell below 9 million in at least seven years.
The decline in the number of self-employed in the US was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in work losses for many of the self-employed. This is no surprise, as self-employed workers are among the most vulnerable during economic downturns and tend to be the first ones to be made redundant.
According to the BLS, self-employed workers were “much more likely” to have lost work as a result of the recession caused by the pandemic than workers in the private and government sectors.
This was most evident in May 2020, during which 42.2% of self-employed workers said they weren’t able to work at some point in the past month as a result of the pandemic. In July 2021, the number of self-employed in the US hit a record 10.3 million. This coincided with the rebound the US economy experienced in 2021, during which it grew 5.7%.
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