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Self-employed person happier than an employee in paid employment

Self-employed people are happier than salaried employees. Full-time freelancers rate their work situation with an average of 7.9. A third even gives a 9 or higher. This is shown by recent research by Tellow, among more than a thousand self-employed and salaried employees. Self-employed workers show that they are more satisfied with their work situation on all aspects:they say that they are more often happy with their work (85% versus 71%), experience daily pleasure more often (83% versus 74%) and experience less stress ( 28% versus 39%). Self-employed workers are more proud of the work they do (86% versus 73%). Overall, they therefore rate their work situation with a 7.8 compared to an average score of 7.4 for salaried employees.

The figures also show that 81% consider it unlikely that they will ever return to employment. Another 13% of salaried employees are seriously considering a step to self-employment.

Although self-employed workers take fewer vacation days than salaried employees, more than 55% say they have a dream job. For salaried employees this is only 32%. The love for the profession, the challenge and being able to better combine work and private life are mentioned by about a quarter of the self-employed as other reasons to start working as a self-employed person.