Morton Marcus
Our standard reports are about people who have jobs, those who don’t, those who are looking for jobs and those who don’t. But we don’t hear much about the self-employed, the people we call entrepreneurs.
It is important to understand that we are discussing jobs in an economy where the same person can work two jobs a day and own an online garage-based home business on the weekend.
In 2022, there were 54.4 million American business owners. That’s an increase of 15 million or 38% in a decade. Indiana saw an increase of 193,000 owners (29%) in the 10 years.
Some believe that Covid and working at home led to the increase in ownership. Others recognize the flexibility of the Internet to reach out to customers, suppliers, and explore alternatives without requiring the investment of a brick-and-mortar store.
Regardless of the causal factors, owners represented 22% of US jobs in 2012 and will be 26% in 2022. Furthermore, they accounted for 45% of the increase in jobs in those years. Indiana also saw an increase in owner-occupiers as a share of total jobs, but with rates below the national average. We saw owners move from 18% to 21% of all jobs, which was 38% of our job growth.
Indiana is heavily concentrated in wage and salary jobs. In 2012, 82% of Hoosier jobs were in that category, compared to 78% nationally. Between 2012 and 2022, W&S jobs accounted for 61% of Indiana’s job growth and 55% nationally.
Yes, the number of Indiana W&S jobs grew less rapidly (10.3%) than the nation’s (13.2%). Likewise, Indiana’s total W&S earnings did not keep pace with the nation, growing 52% versus 57%. Our growth rate for earnings per jobs, however, almost matched the country’s (37.5% vs. 38.7%). Unfortunately, our W&S earnings per jobs in 2022 nearly 16% ($13,300) below the national average.
Hoosier farmers experienced a 2022 that was far better than 2012. Total income was more than double the level of 2012, while the gain nationally was only 24%. Where the average Hoosier homeowner beat the national average by just $830 in 2012, that gap was over $34,000 in 2022.
We’ll let the ag economists tell us if it was the Hoosier shift from livestock to crops or some other change.
Between 2012 and 2022, earnings per non-farm owner at 1.7% nationally and 7% in Indiana. But the spread between the national and Indiana nonfarm owners remained wide, although it decreased from $18,200 to $15,100. Why?
The growth in the number of non-farm owners was 40% nationally and 32% in Indiana. Perhaps Hoosiers aren’t as eager to become homeowners as those in other states. That could mean existing and new Hoosier owners were better prepared to cash in on changing times.
Regardless of the answer, some government agencies will take credit.
Mr. Marcus is an economist. Reach him at [email protected] and follow him and John Guy on Who Gets What? podcast available at mortonjohn.libsyn.com.