Self-Employment in Europe

In July 2010, 33 national articles on the theme of self-employment were commissioned from the European Employment Observatory (EEO) network of SYSDEM experts. This document summarises key messages emerging from these articles and draws links with policy developments, studies and data collected at European level. Further detail on the national-level developments discussed in this report can be found in the national articles, which are available from the EEO website.

This executive summary is split into three sections, in line with the structure of the national articles. The introduction provides a discussion of self-employment in Europe, using data collected at European level to provide an overall picture and providing additional detail based on the information provided in the national articles, to illustrate the different pictures which can be found at national level. This first section also looks at questions such as the impact of the economic crisis on self-employment, attitudes towards self-employment and its role in the labour market.

The second section discusses labour market policies relating to self-employment measures, including those which prioritise certain target groups, and where available, some analysis of the effectiveness of these measures. Section three summarises the information provided in the national articles in relation to the quality of self-employment jobs.

An overview of the policies and measures described in the national articles which have been taken to promote or increase self-employment in each country is provided in the Annex to this publication.