--- url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-count-that-held/' title: 'In 2020, US Employment Fell 6.2%. The Number of Self-Employed Fell 1.2%.' author: name: Samantha Lankford url: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/author/sam/' date: '2026-10-15T10:30:00-04:00' modified: '2026-10-15T10:30:00-04:00' type: post summary: 'BLS household survey: in the 2020 shock, wage jobs fell hard while the self-employed count barely moved. In 2008 it went the other way, and took a decade.' categories: - Blog Post image: 'https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-the-count-that-held-hero.webp' published: true --- # In 2020, US Employment Fell 6.2%. The Number of Self-Employed Fell 1.2%. ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png)Founder Data Report ![In 2020, US Employment Fell 6.2%. The Number of Self-Employed Fell 1.2%.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/founder-the-count-that-held-hero.webp) Founder Data Report # In 2020, US Employment Fell 6.2%. The Number of Self-Employed Fell 1.2%. By Michael Dermer • Updated October 15, 2026 Join us Fridays at 12 PM ET to ask TLE CEO Michael Dermer your questions live. [Join the CEO Call →](https://shorturl.at/364XX) The BLS household survey, 2007 to 2024: when 2020 hit, wage employment fell hard and the self-employed count barely moved. The 2008 recession ran the other way. Quick Answer In the Bureau of Labor Statistics household survey, the number of employed people averaged **157.5 million** in 2019 and **147.8 million** in 2020, a fall of **6.2%**. The number of self-employed people, incorporated and unincorporated together, went from 15.7 million to 15.5 million, a fall of **1.2%**, no bigger than an ordinary year’s move. Their share of everyone working jumped from 10.0% to 10.5% and has stayed above its 2019 level in every year since. In the 2008 recession it went the other way: unincorporated self-employment was still 10.1% below its 2007 level in 2014, when total employment had fully come back. The 30-second version - All employment, 2019 to 2020: −6.2%. Self-employed people: −1.2%. - Unincorporated self-employed fell 3.0%, a bit more than in any year from 2011 to 2019. The incorporated self-employed showed no change beyond an ordinary year. - The self-employed share of the employed rose 0.53 points in 2020, after falling in every year from 2011 to 2019. - 2008 was different: by 2014 total employment was back to its 2007 level, while the unincorporated self-employed count was still 10.1% below it. - The survey counts an owner as employed whether or not the business paid them that week. This is a count of people working for themselves, not of their income. ## One in ten working people, and a share that had been sliding Every month the Current Population Survey asks a national sample of households who is working and how. BLS defines the self-employed as people who work for profit or fees in their own business, profession, trade or farm. It publishes the unincorporated self-employed as their own group and counts the incorporated self-employed, who are technically employees of their own corporation, inside wage and salary work. Put the two back together and they were 11.1% of all employed people in 2007. That share fell in every year but one after, to 10.1% in 2015 and 10.0% in 2019. Then 2020 broke the pattern: the share jumped 0.53 points in a single year. From 2011 to 2019 it had fallen every year, never by more than 0.27 points. It has stayed above every year from 2015 to 2019 since, at 10.4% in 2024. The Data Self-employed people as a share of everyone employed, United States, 2007 to 2024 - 11.1%10.2%10.0%10.5%10.4%9.5%10.0%10.5%11.0%11.5%’07’09’11’13’15’17’20’21’23’24 Years shown as ’07 for 2007 and so on. Incorporated plus unincorporated self-employed, divided by total employment; annual averages of monthly, not seasonally adjusted figures. The vertical axis starts at 9.5%, not zero, so the moves look larger than they would on a full scale: the whole range shown is two percentage points. 2025 is left off: BLS published no October 2025 figure. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (household survey), series LNU02027714 (self-employed, unincorporated), LNU02048984 (incorporated self-employed) and LNU02000000 (employment level), not seasonally adjusted, annual averages of monthly values; retrieved from api.bls.gov on October 14, 2026. > In 2020 the share of working people who work for themselves rose more in one year than it had moved in any year since 2010. ## 2020: the wage jobs went, the owners stayed on the count Measured as annual averages, total employment fell 6.2% from 2019 to 2020, far outside anything from 2011 to 2019, when it rose between 0.6% and 1.9% a year. The self-employed moved much less. The unincorporated group fell 3.0%, slightly more than its own worst year in that stretch. The incorporated group rose 1.6%, inside its ordinary range, which is no measurable change. Together they fell 1.2%, a move the survey produces in ordinary years. An earlier piece here found solo businesses back on their feet within a year, counted on tax returns. This is the same year counted a different way: people, not businesses, and it puts them next to everyone on a payroll. The Data Change in average employment, 2019 to 2020 All employed people−6.2%Self-employed, unincorporated−3.0%Self-employed, incorporated+1.6%All self-employed−1.2% Annual average of monthly figures, not seasonally adjusted. Bars to the left are falls, to the right rises; all bars on one scale, where a full half-width is 12%. Incorporated self-employed are counted by BLS inside wage and salary workers, so they also sit inside the all-employed bar. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (household survey), series LNU02027714 (self-employed, unincorporated), LNU02048984 (incorporated self-employed) and LNU02000000 (employment level), not seasonally adjusted, annual averages of monthly values; retrieved from api.bls.gov on October 14, 2026. ## 2008 ran the other way, and took a decade The earlier recession does not show the same pattern. From 2007 to 2010 total employment fell 4.8%, unincorporated self-employment 7.0% and incorporated self-employment 9.5%. Then the paths split. By 2014 total employment was back to its 2007 level. Unincorporated self-employment was 10.1% below it. The self-employed share of the employed kept sliding for most of a decade after the recession ended. Two downturns, two opposite results for people working for themselves. The survey shows what happened, not why, and this piece does not guess. The Data Change in average employment after the 2008 recession All employed people, 2007 to2010−4.8%Self-employed, unincorporated,2007 to 2010−7.0%Self-employed, incorporated,2007 to 2010−9.5%All employed people, 2007 to2014+0.2%Self-employed, unincorporated,2007 to 2014−10.1% Annual averages of monthly figures, not seasonally adjusted, drawn on the same 12% half-width scale as the 2020 chart so the two can be compared directly. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (household survey), series LNU02027714 (self-employed, unincorporated), LNU02048984 (incorporated self-employed) and LNU02000000 (employment level), not seasonally adjusted, annual averages of monthly values; retrieved from api.bls.gov on October 14, 2026. ## What to take from this if you work for yourself Read the 2020 number for what it is. BLS counts someone as employed if they were temporarily away from their job or business, paid or not, and counts a self-employed person with zero or negative business income as employed if they worked at least an hour. So the count holding steady means owners still had their businesses and still called themselves working. It does not mean revenue held. Nobody can lay you off from a company you own, and the count shows that. Your bank account is a separate measure. That is the case for a cash buffer sized for a shutdown, not a slow quarter. The 2008 lesson points the other way: some downturns thin out the self-employed and keep them thin for years. Plan for both kinds. Four limits worth holding. The household survey is a **sample**, and the data series used here carry no standard errors. This piece treats a move as real only when it lies outside every ordinary year-to-year move from 2011 to 2019. The figures are **annual averages** of unadjusted monthly numbers, which removes seasonal swings. BLS re-weights the survey to new population estimates each January, which can shift levels a little between years, one more reason the piece leans on shares. And the survey **classifies people, not businesses**: a self-employed person with several clients is one person here. The Data Where the numbers land −6.2% all employment, 2019 to 2020 (annual average) −1.2% self-employed people, incorporated and unincorporated, same years 10.0% → 10.5% self-employed share of the employed, 2019 to 2020 −10.1% unincorporated self-employed, 2007 to 2014, when total employment was back U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, annual averages 2007–2024. ## Frequently Asked Questions How many Americans are self-employed? In the BLS household survey, an average of 9.9 million unincorporated and 6.8 million incorporated self-employed people in 2024, together 10.4% of everyone employed. Did self-employment fall in 2020? Barely. The combined count fell 1.2% from 2019 to 2020, a move inside its ordinary year-to-year range. Total employment fell 6.2%. Does that mean self-employed people kept their income in 2020? No. BLS counts someone as employed whether or not they were paid that week, and a self-employed person with zero or negative business income still counts if they worked at least an hour. The count is about who was working for themselves, not what they earned. Was the 2008 recession the same? No. From 2007 to 2010 unincorporated self-employment fell 7.0% against 4.8% for all employment, and it was still 10.1% below 2007 in 2014, when total employment had come back. Why are incorporated owners counted separately? BLS treats the incorporated self-employed as employees of their own corporation and counts them inside wage and salary work. This piece adds them back to the unincorporated group to count everyone working for themselves. Keep reading [Solo Businesses Shook Off 2020 in a Year. 2023 Took Six Times the Hit.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-back-in-a-year/) - [A Young Business Is About a Fifth Less Likely to Close in Any Given Year Than in the 1980s. The First Year Is Still the Hardest.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-the-odds-got-better/) - [At Firms With 1 to 4 Employees, Most Lost Jobs Go When a Workplace Closes. At Every Larger Size, Most Go by Shrinking.](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/founder-room-to-shrink/) Part of the entrepreneurial struggle: [Resilience](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/entrepreneur-struggle/resilience/) ![The Lonely Entrepreneur](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/TLE_Logo_mobile-490W-26-26.png) Published by **The Lonely Entrepreneur** — the community and coaching platform for entrepreneurs who are building alone. [lonelyentrepreneur.com](https://lonelyentrepreneur.com/) This article is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional financial or legal advice.