According to New Zealand statistics, of 1,985,775 people (aged 15 and over) surveyed, 234,954 are self-employed workers without employees, and of those, 82,713 are women. (Statistics New Zealand, Census 2006) If we take this to be a representative sample, nearly 12% of people in the New Zealand workforce have chosen to seek options outside of conventional employer-employee arrangements. This may indicate that New Zealanders are gradually favouring a knowledge-based economy as a result of prevalent neo-liberal influences. Beneath the surface benefits of working for yourself, there is a catch: “There is considerable policy interest in the self -employed and a plethora of schemes to assist people to become self-employed, while their success is variable.” (Walby 2002: 13) When a person is self-employed, the dynamics between the employer and employee are put into question. All the responsibilities of the employer and the employee are transferred to one person. It is difficult to argue the legal grounds for self-employment as theoretically, it is not forced upon the worker. Therefore, the onus is on the self-employee. The nature of their employment also means they are unable to join a trade union; consequentially, it is much harder to resolve disputes and justify injury compensation.
The top three age brackets for self-employment are 45-54, 35-44 and 55-64 respectively. Reasons for choosing self-employment range from having the freedom of ‘controlling one’s own working hours’, working from the comfort of home, starting a new business; others may include being laid off by an existing employer and/or evading actual unemployment. The rates for self-employment almost double between 25-34 and 35-44. Why are older people (ages 35 to 64) more likely to be self-employed? This reflects McRobbie’s statements regarding English industries favouring a youthful workforce. Clearly, the reasons for picking less stable self-employment have outweighed the impetus to remain in regular employer-employee relationships. It would not be an exaggeration to say that perhaps employers are less willing to hire older people for the multitude of issues they bring to the workplace, such as family commitments, health concerns – which relate to hours worked and types of working environments - in addition to physical aging, leading to the reduction of labour-intensive duties for fear of injuries. Furthermore, considerations for pension payouts may also affect the profitability of hiring aging people. Numbers of self-employed decline sharply after age 65, as many will be retirement age and beyond.
The post-modern context requires employers and employees to be constantly up-to-date: Those who do not meet the adaptability criteria will be subtracted from the industry. This makes contractual work seem very appealing, as it demands both the worker and client to fulfil their obligations.
Those with vocational/trade qualifications are more likely to enter self-employment than people with other types of certifications. This may be attributed to the practicality of a trades-related job, in that these skills can be applied without the input of others. However, this type of work tends to be periodic at best, and highly dependent on context and factors. For instance, builders work less during winter due to the weather constraints.
Higher numbers of self-employed people belong in the business/financial industry followed by agriculture/forestry/fishing and construction, respectively. This infers that, for New Zealand at least, self-employment is still the preferred choice in traditional service sectors; contrasted with the United Kingdom and the United States, where self-employment has grown manifold in popularity, extending beyond traditional notions of service.
Urban regions contain 75% of all self-employed people, which demonstrates that self-employment is largely technology/communications-based, and urban areas have better access to resources, or simply that there are greater distribution of ethnicities, industries and employment options in the cities. Supplementary data shows that self-employed New Zealand-born people outnumber those of foreign origin by 55%. Of this group, most identify themselves as of only European descent. This is reasonable, given that the new wave of immigrants peaked during the late 1990s; they are probably not familiar enough with the New Zealand context to rush headlong into self-employment. Another thing to be noted is that despite projections, the European population in New Zealand outnumbers all other ethnicities. Correlations between race and self-employment can be drawn, but there are no definitive causes to suggest substantive conclusions.
By March 2008, of the 2,138,900 (of working age) surveyed, some 256,500 were self-employed, 67% of which are male, showing an increase of 2%. Surprisingly, self-employed women have decreased by 2%. This is likely to indicate that more women are becoming unemployed or are engaging in part-time work instead.
Part-time employment tends to lack stability and offers less in terms of rewards and opportunities, but like self-employment, it gives the worker more flexibility. This type of work also tends to relegate the individual to low-level, unskilled jobs. This statement holds true, particularly for women – the demands of the post-modern economy means females from the lower to middle-class are required to take up dual roles as mother and worker, or otherwise be unable to provide sufficient financial support for their families.
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