Get With the Program.

Full Moon Rising: Self Employment & Later Life Careers

Career planning materials talk about options and “alternatives to traditional employment” OR sometimes it is written “alternatives to work”; and typically self employment is listed as that “also ran” in the field of choice.

But wait a minute! Self employment IS work.

It is simply an alternative arrangement to working relationships within organizations. While it may not initially be everyone’s preference, given our history of working through the industrial age and the ingrained “employee mentality” it is no small wonder that the percentage of working Canadians recorded by Statistics Canada in 2003 as “self employed” stands at about 14 %.

Given that statistic, how direct is the correlation between later life careers and self employment? As there are many over 50 (and extending well beyond it), who are opting for more choice in their desire to continue working - is there any clue that working for your self as the “organization of one” is a full moon rising?

A recent report from CIBC World Markets says that “Boomer Businesses are Booming”. The fastest growth area in the business start-up market is the 55 and over age group, which accounts for 15% of total start-ups, a gain from 11% in 1990. Is this by choice or a fall back position? Only 20% of those who started a business in the past 2 years said that they did so from pressure or as a fall back from finding an employee based relationship.

Not to be outdone, a similar report in 2004 from Scotia Economics supports the same growth except their numbers state that “individuals age 55 to 65 now represent almost 20% of self employed workers and their numbers have ratcheted up at 5 ½ % annual pace over the past 7 years.

The CIBC report goes on to say; “This trend represents not only an aging Canadian society, but also increased tendency toward early retirement. The affordability and availability of technology… enables older Canadians to provide consulting services from home.”

This last statement may well be true for some - but what is the range of possibilities in defining self employment? How truly are we recording the real stories and statistics of “self managed” or self employed working Canadians? To what degree will self employment in later life careers grow?

Over the next several months Change Rangers will discuss these questions and feature specialists in different aspects of self employment. In the meantime you may want to check out the September 2004 feature article “A Boom in Business Start Ups’ (a summary on the CIBC World Markets report) at www.camagazine.com