Self-employment in Canada and the United States

Self-employment has accounted for the majorityof net employment growth in Canada in the1990s, but for almost none in the United States (Manser and Picot, 1997). This marks a change from the 1980s, when it played a similar role in both countries. Not surprisingly, considerable attention has been paid in recent years to self-employment in Canada, especially to workers reasons for choosing this option. Have they been pushed by lack of full-time paid jobs or pulled by the positive benefits of self-employment? 1 Survey data in both countries shed some light on the extent to which many workers may prefer self-employment. Statistics Canadas 1995 Sur-vey of Work Arrangements asked workers why they were self-employed, and most provided positive reasons, as did respondents to the U.S. Curren