Everyone quit to go work for themselves

The Future. Fed up with low pay, poor worker protections, and rude customers, a record number of people are quitting their jobs or passing on going back to work. Instead, they’re deciding to work for themselves, taking the pandemic as a chance to give their passions a chance. While that might mean a bit of economic uncertainty right now, proper investment into these startups could pay dividends — they’re the job-creators of the future.

The Great Creation
Corporations may be sweating the “Great Resignation,” but former employees are striking out as their own bosses.

• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 4.3 million new business applications were submitted in 2020.
• 3.8 million have already been submitted this year.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis found that the number of self-employed workers is the highest it has been in eight years.

Buoyed by huge improvements in remote work tech, people are leaving their jobs (voluntarily or involuntarily) to give entrepreneurship a chance. Insider calls this a “new class of solopreneurs, freelancers, and full-time side hustlers.”

Project Employer
One of the biggest worries is that a major uptick in new businesses leaves a lot of existing businesses understaffed (mostly hospitality, retail, and services) while the upstarts struggle to make an impact on economic growth. According to the Labor Bureau, that’s fair — startups only have a 50% chance of sticking around for five years.

In reality, it’s all a transition phase. The Census Bureau found that businesses created in 2020 have a 35% chance of hiring people themselves. Expect to see a significant number of people who “refuse to go back to work” create new jobs themselves.