Business Owners and the Self-Employed: 33 Million (and Counting!)
September 2025
Working Paper Number:
CES-25-60
Abstract
Entrepreneurs are known to be key drivers of economic growth, and the rise of online platforms and the broader 'gig economy' has led self-employment to surge in recent decades. Yet the young and small businesses associated with this activity are often absent from economic data. In this paper, we explore a novel longitudinal dataset that covers the owners of tens of millions of the smallest businesses: those without employees. We produce three new sets of statistics on the rapidly growing set of nonemployer businesses. First, we measure transitions between self-employment and wage and salary jobs. Second, we describe nonemployer business entry and exit, as well as transitions between legal form (e.g., sole proprietorship to S corporation). Finally, we link owners to their nonemployer businesses and examine the dynamics of business ownership.
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:
economist,
enterprise,
employed,
entrepreneurial,
proprietorship,
entrepreneur,
entrepreneurship,
proprietor,
small businesses,
incorporated,
earner,
nonemployer businesses,
businesses grow
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:
Internal Revenue Service,
Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Social Security Administration,
Current Population Survey,
Longitudinal Business Database,
Employer Identification Numbers,
National Employer Survey,
Unemployment Insurance,
North American Industry Classification System,
Social Security Number,
Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics,
Census Bureau Business Register,
Business Register,
Protected Identification Key,
W-2,
Quarterly Workforce Indicators,
Office of Personnel Management,
Census Bureau Disclosure Review Board,
Integrated Longitudinal Business Database,
Business Dynamics Statistics,
Federal Statistical Research Data Center,
Nonemployer Statistics,
Legal Form of Organization
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