Independent work: choice, necessity, and the gig economy

Government data sources
In the United States, we utilized government data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 
to calculate the number of primary independent workers. The BLS categorizes adults in the 
working-age population into inactive, unemployed, and employed. The employed category 
is split into self-employed and non-self-employed, based on data collected through the 
Current Population Survey (CPS). Specifically, we used the self-employment and temporary/
contract workers categories combined as the closest proxy for independent workers.
The BLS conducted a Contingent Worker Supplement of the CPS in 2005 but has not 
repeated it since. However, economists Lawrence Katz and Alan Krueger reran a version of 
the supplement in 2015, and we utilize the updated data from this report.
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 The supplement 
captures workers who are in the following alternative work arrangements: independent 
contractors, contracted-out workers, temporary agency workers, and on-call workers. 
Many of these are also considered self-employed, and the overlap between workers 
captured in the supplement and workers who are self-employed is quite high (47.5 percent). 
Adding the distinct pieces of the self-employed and contingent workers, we arrive at an 
estimate of 27 million primary independent workers.  
To estimate the number of supplemental workers, we first looked at government data for 
“multiple jobholders,” a category that fits 3 percent of US workers. We also looked at other 
research conducted by private entities. Combining government data with research by the 
Freelancers Union, we estimate that the total workforce includes 54 million independent 
workers. This implies that there are 27 million supplemental independent workers 
(Exhibit A1).
To calculate the size of the primary independent workforce in the European Union, we look 
at Eurostat data, which capture both self-employment and temporary workers in each 
country. To calculate the size of the supplemental independent workforce, we first looked 
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  See Lawrence F. Katz and Alan B. Krueger, 
The rise and nature of alternative work arrangements in the United 
States, 1995–2015
, March 2016.