Self-employment in 2017 – More than 1 in 5 self-employed in the EU had seized a suitable opportunity to run their own business
Around 30% of self-employed reported no difficulties in their work
In 2017, in the European Union (EU), there were more than 228 million employed people, and about 33 million of them were self-employed. Self-employed people in the EUreported several reasons for becoming self-employed in the current job: suitable opportunity (23%), continuation of the family business (16%), usual practice in the field (15%), flexible work hours (11%), no job found as employee (11%) and request by former employer (2%).