More than 4 million self-employed workers at the end of 2021 according to an Urssaf count

Thus, the number of self-employed increased by 8,6% in 2021 (after +8,1% in 2020), driven by the sustained growth of self-employed entrepreneurs (+15,3% in 2021, after +17,6 % in 2020), while the classic IT status recorded an increase of 1,6%. Auto-entrepreneurs (AE) now represent 54,2% of self-employed workers. Among them, the proportion having declared a positive turnover ‒ the so-called economically active AEs ‒ increased (70,9% in 2021, i.e. 1,5 points more than in 2020) while remaining below its 2019 level (72,4%).

The increase in the number of self-employed concerns almost all of the activities carried out by EAs and most of those carried out by traditional IT.

Women are less represented among the self-employed, whatever the status. They are 38% among classic TIs and 40% among AEs. Nevertheless, when they are self-employed, they are proportionally more economically active than men (75,6% against 67,8%). Auto-entrepreneurs are younger than traditional IT. Nearly three-quarters of the latter are over 40 years old, while more than half of self-employed people are under 40 years old.

At the end of 2021, nearly 23% of self-employed people combine their individual activity with salaried employment in the private sector. In the classic IT population, the share of polyactives is less than 7%. These proportions differ according to the sectors.

For 2020, traditional self-employed workers declared an average income of 41 euros, down 258% compared to 3,2, due to the health crisis. This particularly affected the taxi-VTC sector, accommodation, retail trade in markets, arts, shows and other recreational activities, catering and drinking establishments, but also hairdressing and body care. body.

In 2021, the income of auto-entrepreneurs will catch up with their average pre-crisis level (6 euros in 254, and 2021 euros in 6). This had fallen by 117% in 2019 (9,9 euros). Only the taxi-VTC and sports activities sectors have not returned to their average income level of 2020.

Construction, a representative sector of IT employers

Construction activities are highly represented among the self-employed with 449,6 thousand accounts (10,9% of registered users): 4,4% for finishing work, 3,5% for structural work and 3,0, 11,6% for installation work. They concern both statuses: 10,4% of traditional IT and XNUMX% of auto-entrepreneurs.

In 2021, self-employed workers are numerous in a few sectors of trade and crafts: 10,8% of employers work in restaurants and drinking establishments (compared to 3,5% of IT non-employers, graph B), 6,0, 3,4% in non-food retail trade (compared to 5,4%), 1,7% in food trades (compared to 4,4%), 2,4% in hairdressing and body care (compared to 3,7. 1,5%) and 50% in automobile repair (against XNUMX%). In each of these sectors, the share of employers exceeds XNUMX%.

Similarly, in the construction sector, almost half of the self-employed are employers. Thus, 6,2% of IT employers work in construction work (compared to 2,8% of non-employers), 5,3% in finishing work (compared to 3,4%) and 4,2% in installation work (against 2,9%). TIs are also mainly employers in dental practice, the sale of pharmaceutical and orthopedic products, social action and freight transport and removals. Finally, 17,2% of self-employed workers are employers in 2021 (706 self-employed) . 000% of traditional self-employed have employees compared to 36,4% of self-employed people.