A new report from CMF member the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research reveals millions more Americans may be self-employed than previously estimated.

In partnership with the University of Maryland, the report, How Many Independent Contractors Are There and Who Works in These Jobs?, highlights the share of independent contractors in the labor force may be nearly 15% of all workers, which is almost twice the estimate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The report highlights that the independent contractor workforce is hard to measure, and different sources of data disagree about its size.

To understand these discrepancies and potential problems with standard household surveys, researchers conducted focus groups to learn about the terms contractors use to describe their work and used these findings to design and implement a large-scale survey.

The study collected information on about 61,000 individuals.

According to the report, the survey questions addressed the miscoding and underreporting problems with standard household survey questions. In particular, researchers asked questions specifically meant to identify individuals who might think of themselves as working for an employer but who actually are independent contractors.

Key findings include:

• Among workers working for an employer on one or more jobs, approximately 1 in 10 is an independent contractor on at least one of those jobs.
• The adjustment for “miscoded employees” nearly doubles the share of workers who are independent contractors on their main job, from 8% to 15%.
• The youngest and oldest workers are more likely to be miscoded, as are Black and Hispanic workers, men, and workers with less education.
• Black and Hispanic workers are more likely than White workers to be independent contractors.
• College graduates are less likely to be independent contractors compared to individuals without a college degree.

According to the report, this research addresses why standard household surveys may miss much of the independent contractor workforce.

The report shares that learnings from the focus groups highlight that independent contractors often think of themselves as working for an organization, particularly if they have only a few clients, which explains why they may not think of themselves as being self-employed.

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Read the full report.