Romania and Cyprus have the highest shares of self-employed who declare that they started their own business because they failed to find a job, unlike those self-employed in other states who most often say they have found a right opportunity to set up a business, according to Eurostat.

"We did not find a job as an employee" was provided as the most common reason for turning entrepreneurs in Romania (38%) and Cyprus (25%).

In fifteen EU Member States, the "right opportunity" was most frequently cited reason for becoming self-employed, with the highest percentages in Bulgaria (42%), Italy (39%) and Hungary (36%).

In three countries, namely Belgium (28%), Germany (21%) and Latvia (20%) the most common reason was "common practice". In three other countries - Poland (27%), Greece (25%) and Spain (24%) - predominates "the continuation of the family business".

In 2017, there were more than 228 million employees in the European Union (EU), and about 33 million of them were self-employed.

Romania has one of the highest shares (88%) of self-employed workers who do not depend on a dominant client. On the downside, Romania and Latvia have the largest proportion of self-employed workers who have not served any clients in the past 12 months (both 18%) hence are inactive.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Adobe Stock)