What is the share of self-employed with one client only?
Self-employed persons working for only one client or customer are dependent on that client in certain ways and usually have limited entrepreneurial freedom. Through the bond to only one client it is impossible to clearly identify whether the person is a self-employed or an employee.
For self-employed, these forms of employment bare a risk to loose freedom in terms of working time organisation, implementation of own ideas or concepts. Furthermore, losses in pricing and reduced safety in terms of social security and health insurance are likely.
The indicator shows the share of self-employed aged 15 years and older with only one client in all employed aged 15 years and older.
0.7% of all employed are self-employed with only one client
In 2017, 0.7% of all employed aged 15 years and older were self-employed with only one client. This share seems quite small, but it refers to about 300,000 persons. Measured against all self-employed, the share is at 6.9%. The following result will refer to the share in all self-employed.
There are differences by a gender: 7.9% of the self- employed women have only one client in comparison to 6.5% men. The share of self-employed working in part-time who indicate to have only one client is at 16.8% and increases the probability that this type of employment is neither securing the current income nor the future one.
In some European countries the share of this group of self-employed has increased in the past years. This cannot be stated for Germany as this aspect of self-employment has been evaluated the first time in 2017.
Looking at other European countries it is notable that this type of employment is not particularly common in Germany. In Slovakia, 23.0% of all self-employed indicate to have only one client, but also in countries such as Italy (13.5%) and the United Kingdom (12.5%) the phenomenon seems widespread and above European average. In Switzerland, Denmark and Croatia, only about 3% of the self-employed indicate to have just one client.
| Country | Share in all self-employed |
|---|---|
| Source: Labour Force Survey 2017 | |
| European Union - 28 countries | 9.0 |
| Slovakia | 23.0 |
| Turkey | 14.6 |
| Bulgaria | 13.8 |
| Italy | 13.5 |
| United Kingdom | 12.5 |
| Island | 12.0 |
| Cyprus | 11.3 |
| Norway | 10.3 |
| Lithuania | 10.0 |
| Ireland | 9.9 |
| Slovenia | 9.8 |
| Rumania | 9.6 |
| Luxemburg | 9.3 |
| Poland | 9.0 |
| Austria | 7.7 |
| Sweden | 7.2 |
| Germany | 6.9 |
| Czech Republic | 6.8 |
| Greece | 6.8 |
| Malta | 6.5 |
| Belgium | 6.5 |
| Finland | 6.4 |
| Estonia | 6.4 |
| Spain | 6.2 |
| Netherlands | 5.6 |
| Portugal | 5.4 |
| France | 5.3 |
| Lithuania | 5.1 |
| Hungary | 4.5 |
| Schwitzerland | 3.3 |
| Danmark | 3.2 |
| Croatia | 3.1 |
Information on the Indicator
Description or definition
Share of self-employed (15 years and older) who indicate having only one client in the past twelve months in all employed (15 years and older).
Share of self-employed (15 years and older) who indicate having only one client in the past twelve months in all self-employed (15 years and older).
Source
Labour Force Survey (Ad hoc Module 2017)
Information for interpretation
This indicator shows self-employed having one client. This single characteristic is internationally comparable and provides information to this subgroup of self-employed that possibly is subject to a type of employment that is very similar to an employee status. The results presented here do not stand for the German concept of 'Scheinselbstständigkeit' (so called pseudo-self-employment). To evaluate the latter, more and other criteria would have to be considered.
In the last few years, the methodology of the labour force survey has been continuously improved in terms of employment status coverage. Therefore comparisons over time are partly limited. Methodological changes affecting the results were performed especially in 2005 and, more currently, for the years from 2011. Consequently, the results for those years can be compared with the results for previous years to a limited extent only.
In the context of the current changes, the extrapolation of microcensus data uses the population figures from the 2011 Census, which was conducted as at 9 May 2011. The results have been revised from 2010 onwards. With effect from the year 2016, the sample is based on the 2011 census data. This transition affects the comparability of the results with previous years.
For more information please refer to Methods: Quality Reports and Explanations (only in German).
Further results can be found at the Eurostat website or in: Günther, L.; Marder-Puch, K.: Selbstständigkeit – Methoden und Ergebnisse des Ad-Hoc-Moduls zur Arbeitskräfteerhebung 2017. In: Wirtschaft und Statistik 1/2019, S. 116-131 (only in German).