Self-Employed People (62%) are More Likely to be Highly Satisfied with their Jobs

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Self-employed workers view their jobs more favorably than those who are not self-employed, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey of employed Americans. Most self-employed workers (62%) say they are extremely or very satisfied with their job, compared with 51% of those who are not self-employed. They also express higher levels of enjoyment and fulfillment with their job.

In turn, those who are not self-employed are more likely than self-employed workers to say they find their job stressful and overwhelming. Some 48% of self-employed workers say their contributions at work are valued a great deal, compared with a quarter of those who are not self-employed.

There are also important differences in when and where self-employed workers do their jobs:

47% of self-employed workers say their job can mostly be done from home, compared with 38% of those who are not self-employed. 60% of self-employed workers with jobs that can be done from home say they work from home all of the time, compared with 32% of those who are not self-employed. A larger share of self-employed workers (52%) than those who are not self-employed (28%) say they respond to emails or other messages from work outside of normal work hours.

How the self-employed workforce differs from the U.S. overalls
About 15 million U.S. workers are self-employed, making up about 10% of the U.S. workforce, based on a Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Roughly three-quarters of self-employed workers (76%) work full time, and 24% work part time. Among all workers, 84% work full time while 16% work part time. Self-employed workers are more likely than U.S. workers overall to be male, White and foreign born:

Men make up 64% of the self-employed workforce, compared with 53% of workers overall. White workers make up 68% of self-employed Americans, compared with 61% of workers overall. Foreign-born workers make up 22% of the self-employed workforce, a slightly higher share than among all U.S. workers (18%).