In the second quarter of 2021, 13% of employed people aged between 20-64 years in the EU were self-employed. The remaining employed people were predominantly classified as employees (86%) with a smaller share (less than1%) working as contributing family workers.

Among the self-employed, men outnumbered women (67% vs 33%). In contrast, there was a fairly even split between men and women who were categorised as employees (52% vs 48%).

Examining the data by age group, a larger proportion of people aged 55-64 years were self-employed (17%) compared to other age groups; 4% of those aged 15-24 were self-employed and 13% of those aged 25-54.

Less than 4% of employed people had a second job

In the second quarter of 2021, just under 4% of employed people aged 20-64 had a second job in the EU. Among them, 57% of those having a second job did their second job as an employee, while 39% did their second job as self-employed.

Across the EU Member States, the countries with highest shares of employed people working in two jobs were the Netherlands (10%), Finland and Denmark (both 7%), Estonia and Lithuania (both 6%). In contrast 0.5% or less of employed people had a second job in Bulgaria, Romania and Sweden.

In addition, self-employment appears to be slightly more common among employed people who have a low educational attainment level (16% of people with a low educational attainment level were self-employed compared with 12% of people with a medium level of education and 13% with a high level of education).

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Source: ec.europa.eu/eurostat