Did you know?

 

Self-employment in rural America has boomed, but self-employed rural persons now earn much less than wages-and-salary rural workers.

Using data from IRS Schedule C, Form 1024 income tax filings by non-farm proprietors or self-employed workers, compiled for each county by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (Regional Economic Information System, Stephan Goetz has examined changing patterns and impacts of self-employment in rural America.  In the last four years, self-employment earnings relative to earnings of traditional wages-and-salary workers have reached historic lows. Factors influencing both the rates and earnings associated with rural self-employment fall into two major categories: 1) characteristics of the population pool from which the self-employed are drawn; and 2) community-level attributes that assist or serve as barriers to self-employed people.

Figure 1. Trends in Rural Wage-and Salary vs. Self-Employment Jobs, and Ratio of Self-Employed to Wage-and -Salary Workers, 1969-2005.

 

Figure 2: Trends in Rural Nominal Earnings per Job: Wage-and-Salary vs. Self-Employment and Ration, 1969-2005.

 

Source: Goetz, Stephan J. 2008. Self-employment in rural America: The new economic reality. Rural Realities 2(3).  Available at: http://www.ruralsociology.org/pubs/ruralrealities/RuralRealities2-3.pdf .