Americans tend to regard those who are self-employed as go-getters who can't abide the rules and regulations of the corporate world and go out on their own to pursue whatever they define as success. Alas, in much of the world today, that definition is a far cry from reality.
Gallup surveyed more than 135,000 self-employed individuals from around the world, and found that, in many other nations, the self-employed exist barely above the poverty line. They are often poorly educated and work for themselves because the alternative would be starvation.
"Eighteen percent of all adults worldwide — or 29 percent of the global workforce — reported being self-employed in 2013. But rather than a positive sign of proactive entrepreneurial energy, high rates of self-employment can often signal poor economic performance. The self-employed are three times as likely as those who are employed full time for an employer to be living on less than $2 per day," Gallup said in a release.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
