Mathijn Wilkens a \u00e9tudi\u00e9 la situation des entrepreneurs ind\u00e9pendants pour l\u2019agence europ\u00e9enne Eurofound. Il a ainsi pu \u00e9tablir une nomenclature pertinente. Dans l\u2019article ci-dessous, vous trouverez les d\u00e9tails sur le r\u00e9sultat de sa recherche. Et sa conclusion nous apprend qu\u2019aupr\u00e8s d\u2019ind\u00e9pendants autonomes qui ont parfaitement r\u00e9ussi, il existe \u00e9galement un groupe important d\u2019ind\u00e9pendants \u00ab\u00a0vuln\u00e9rables \u00bb. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n While the\u00a0Europe 2020 strategy<\/a>\u00a0actively promotes entrepreneurial self-employment as a means to create good jobs, policy makers at national and EU level are actively looking at better social protection for self-employed workers. Understanding this paradox requires looking beyond the \u2018self-employed\u2019 label and acknowledging it as an umbrella term covering a widely differing group of workers.<\/p>\n A new study by Eurofound<\/a>\u00a0shows that while some self-employed live up to the image of the entrepreneurial, independent workers who decide for themselves when and how to work, others are less fortunate and are stuck in precarious and dependent work situations.<\/p>\n Despite the growing debates, self-employment in the EU has in fact not increased in decades, remaining stable at around 15% of the EU labour force. This is largely the result of the shrinking agricultural sector \u2013 which traditionally has a high proportion of self-employed \u2013 counterbalancing the rise in services. Also, the trend for Europe as a whole masks significant country differences: in places like the Netherlands, the share of self-employment is rising more than in others. And the composition is changing: the share of self-employed with employees is declining, whereas the share of self-employed without employees is on the rise, especially those working part-time.<\/p>\n Eurofound\u2019s\u00a0European Working Conditions Survey<\/a>\u00a0(EWCS) shows that for one in five self-employed workers, self-employment was the only viable option as there were no other work alternatives. This is important because, as a recent\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0commissioned by the European Parliament shows, the likelihood of ending up in precarious employment is higher for those who did not choose to become self-employed. The biggest concern for these workers is lack of social protection, as acknowledged by the\u00a0European Pillar of Social Rights<\/a>\u00a0which advocates the right to fair and equal treatment regarding working conditions, access to social protection and training,\u00a0regardless<\/em>\u00a0of the type of employment relationship.<\/p>\n While there are increasing concerns about social protection and working conditions among self-employed workers, self-employment is also\u00a0encouraged<\/a>\u00a0as a means of promoting entrepreneurship, innovation and job creation within the\u00a0Europe 2020 strategy<\/a>. This paradox results from different policy makers talking about different types of self-employed workers. To make sense of the political discourse at work here we need to know who exactly the self-employed are. Also: Who needs social protection and who is sufficiently covered? We explored this diversity of the self-employed in the EU28 and investigated their coverage in social protection systems\u00a0in a new Eurofound report<\/a>.<\/p>\n We use data from the EWCS to cluster the self-employed into groups with broadly common characteristics. The results show that in terms of their working conditions, the self-employed can be roughly divided into five distinct groups.<\/p>\n On one side of the spectrum we find the types of self-employed that the Europe 2020 strategy seeks to promote \u2013 entrepreneurial independent self-employed, often enjoying higher earnings and more autonomy which is reflected in healthier, happier and longer working lives. Two of the five clusters \u2013 labelled \u2018employers\u2019 and \u2018stable own-account workers\u2019 \u2013 represent about half of the self-employed. The \u2018employers\u2019 are a group of self-employed with employees, while the \u2018stable own-account workers\u2019 do not employ any employees. Both groups are more likely to be self-employed out of choice.<\/p>\n The opposite is the case for one in four self-employed labelled \u2018vulnerable\u2019 and \u2018concealed\u2019 \u2013representing together roughly the size of Austria\u2019s population. These are the self-employed the European Pillar of Social Rights seeks to protect as they generally are in more precarious situations, with lower levels of income and job security, more dependent and with less working autonomy. They experience, overall, unfavourable working conditions and this seems to correspond to lower levels of health and wellbeing. Both the \u2018vulnerable\u2019 and \u2018concealed\u2019 in some respects resemble employees as they are more likely to depend on one client only (especially the \u2018vulnerable\u2019) and have less autonomy (especially the \u2018concealed\u2019).<\/p>\n The picture is more mixed for the cluster labelled \u2018small traders and farmers\u2019, combining both favourable and unfavourable working conditions. They tend to be economically independent and work autonomously, but find it hard to do their job. More than 70 percent work six or seven days a week and find it difficult to take time off. Like the \u2018vulnerable\u2019 and \u2018concealed\u2019 their health, well-being and job satisfaction is lower than for the \u2018employers\u2019 and \u2018stable own-account workers\u2019.<\/p>\nThe many faces of self-employment in Europe<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nLeft Behind<\/h2>\n
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