Dependent self-employment in broader context: trends in employment

Firstly, this chapter reviews overall employment participation rates in 35 European countries to show the size of the ‘jobs gap’ between current employment rates and full employment. Secondly, it is revealed that there are also problems with the type and quality of employment being created, exemplified by the emergence of new forms of non-standard employment and the growth of the ‘working poor’, meaning that not all are equally ‘socially included’ through their insertion into employment. Thirdly, the chapter addresses the issue of self-employment. To do this, the extent and growth of self-employment is reviewed, revealing that although there are considerable variations across countries, there is a growth in the proportion of total self-employment that is self-employment without employees and part-time self-employment, often taken up on an involuntary basis. It is also revealed that the population groups who are engaging in self-employment are not those conventionally associated with the self-employed.