The Decline of Self-Employment and Small Business
April 22, 2013

"Small business is the incubator of employment. As it declines, so too do opportunities for first jobs, second chances and economic independence.

Self-employment and small business are two sides of a single economic coin: financial independence. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) counts two types of self-employed, the unincorporated and the incorporated. The unincorporated may have employees, but typically do not, i.e. they are sole proprietors. The incorporated have employees, starting with the owner, as the BLS counts the incorporated self-employed as employees of their own corporation.

I know that's confusing, but it's important to separate the sole proprietors from those "self-employed" incorporated businesses that have employees: law firms, doctors' offices, accountants, etc.

When we speak of "small business," we're referring in large part to the incorporated self-employed: people who establish corporations as the legal structure for their enterprise.
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We can attribute this trend to the rise of global Corporate America and government employment.
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It's important to note ... if millions of self-employed saw their net incomes slashed in the recession, the BLS still counts them as self-employed. So a consultant who earned $100,000 prior to the recession and now scrambles to net $10,000 is still self-employed.
. . .
Small business plays two critically important and often unrecognized roles. One, it tends to give new workers their first employment experience.
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Two, small business tends to train workers who are then able to move up the job ladder to better paying corporate jobs, having learned the ropes at a small business. If you talk to corporate insiders, they will admit (in private) that their own job training efforts are limited: it's faster and more productive to poach your new hires from a competitor than invest years bringing up new talent.
. . ."

More with charts:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogapr13/smal...ecline4-13.html

Thank you for posting.