If the 9–5 dies, will self-employment save us us all?
In today’s post I’ve written something important for you because it breaks down my fundamental thesis that the future of work is entrepreneurial. It is also important because it offers an example of the kind of writing I believe you too, as an Authority Entrepreneur, should and can produce.
I’ll share exactly why, and how, in this free masterclass.
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A deep dive on why jobs are disappearing and entrepreneurship is future of work (plus your plan to prepare for it)
If you work for yourself (or are thinking about it) that’s not as much of an original choice as it once was.
I’m sure you’ve already noticed this pattern: more and more people are shunning traditional 9-5 jobs in favour of self-employment. Well, I have. This past year I’ve been documenting what I refer to as ‘the rise of mass entrepreneurialism’. The future of work is entrepreneurship.
If you’re rolling your eyes at another “AI is here to steal your job” post, then unroll them.
This post will dig into why this shift is happening (there are a myriad of factors with AI being just one) and offers my own take on what implications this workforce shift brings, plus some advice for surviving what comes next.
But why listen to me?
I’ve been working at the intersection of careers and technology since 2013. I started out in senior recruitment, hiring for Europe’s top startups and scaleups — companies that weren’t just innovating markets but reshaping careers as we know them. From there, I joined a startup accelerator, helping corporates experiment with entrepreneurial ventures while supporting London’s founder ecosystem. In 2020, I launched my own business, The Ask, to help entrepreneurial professionals navigate modern careers where old rules no longer apply. Since then, I’ve coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and professionals making the leap out of the 9-5 and shared my insights widely online exploring these and related topics.
This shift toward mass entrepreneurialism goes far beyond what I see in one-on-one coaching. It’s bigger, deeper, and more urgent than most people realise.
This change that shapes economies, not just careers.
It’s happening: Proof that the 9-5 is dying and more people are working for themselves
Reid Hoffman’s prediction that jobs are fast becoming extinct took the internet by storm last year.
But how true really is it? Let’s look at some of the figures…
Economists and practitioners have long predicted a decline in jobs, as well as a decline in the ‘long term relationship’ between employers and employees. However, data on true self employment figures are challenging due to the variety of definitions and legal terms, which are not universal across different countries.
What we can see, though, from World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 is a highly unstable labour market. By 2030, 92 million jobs are set to disappear. While 170 million new ones are predicted to emerge that’s a churn of 22% of all formal jobs and 86% of employers expect their businesses to be reshaped by AI in some way or another. It’s not fully happened, yet, though. MIT reported that 95% of generative AI pilots at companies are failing, which means that often, a business will blame AI to save face. AI is often a scapegoat masking other more structural reasons for job losses.
But, this will accelerate as nations with aging populations and climate transitions are pushing companies to automate faster (79% in aging economies vs 73% globally).
Even if the data on the job market doesn’t seem to indicate real threats just yet, the data is in fact a ‘hot mess’ as low response rates mask the realities. The likelihood is that much of the stability comes from people patching together income through precarious work.
The new world of work is already here.
The World Bank counts nearly half the global workforce as having had self-employed income in 2024. There’s a big split between low-income countries where 80% are already self-employed and in higher-income countries it is 12% and rising fast.
The MBO Partners State of Independence Report in 2025 counted 72.9 million independent workers in the US. They observed amongst traditional workers that 36% hold side gigs, designed to be back up plans or entry-points into self-employment. The younger generation in particular, reacting to the challenges of finding entry level roles.
As I was writing this piece, UK’s leading entrepreneur Daniel Priestley released a new video illustrating the shift .
He shows how today, roughly 60% of people are in waged employment - aka the traditional 9-5 set up. But soon, that number will fall to around 30%.
Where do that 30% go? He thinks half will choose to work for themselves, while the other half will rely on benefits. We’ll need more capacity to support such individuals, if so, and governments around the world are looking into Universal Basic Income (UBI) as a serious option.
Priestley describes a rise of people working for fees rather than wages. Fees mean self-employment: selling value, not just time.
Thanks to AI automating so many manual tasks, and the nature of skills changing, the old model of “hours worked = fair wage” is breaking down. In its place, the market is moving toward value-based work; where you’re paid for the impact you create, not the time you spend.
That’s exactly what I mean by entrepreneurship. It’s about taking your skills and turning them into something: a service, a product, a business. It’s removing the reliance on a company to pay you for showing up at your desk. Instead, it’s about taking your talent into your own hands and finding ways to monetise it — through freelancing, business building, gig work, or something in between.
The exact definition of what constitutes an entrepreneur vs what it means to be self-employed is nuanced, and academics who have attempted to study markets through the lens of employment, also use different terms interchangeably.
The nuances matter less than the overall direction of travel: a growing share of people will earn a living this way, without a traditional employer.
Many of these new businesses will stay lean and scale through digital platforms, media, code and IP rather scaling than through adding headcount on payroll.
Now with terms and definitions out the way, keep reading to learn:
Why the 9-5 is dying and being replaced by entrepreneurship
The implications to be mindful of, if everyone is suddenly an entrepreneur
An insurance policy: how to protect your own career and livelihood in this next phase
Why it’s happening: The reasons work is becoming more entrepreneurial
As with any big economic shift, there isn’t one single cause. It’s a mix of forces I’ve observed firsthand or discovered in the data.
To help make sense of this complexity, think of these factors in terms of “Push vs Pull”. In some ways there are factors pushing people, involuntarily, into self-employment because of the challenges of traditional employment. There are then the pull factors, enticing people towards it. Of course this is an oversimplification and in some instances, workers kid themselves that their actions are by choice when in fact, there is a reality of a lack of alternative at play.
Think of it like a big game of tug & pull
Push aka Tug factors driving workers towards entrepreneurship (and away from jobs)
Leaner Businesses The effects of globalisation in recent decades have eroded the advantages that large companies once relied on. In 1970 the Fortune 500 accounted for 20% of US employment and by 1996 just 8.5%. Today the average firm is smaller and leaner, with fewer big payrolls. Instead of long-term jobs, modern work tends to be highly distributed across contractors, freelancers, and consultants.
Macro-Economic Turmoil Recessions, inflation, COVID, and the Ukraine war have left companies more cautious. Rising labour costs, high interest rates, and trade tensions all make payroll roles more vulnerable for organisations, and so layoffs are the default response. (This 2025 report revealed 28% of Americans had been laid off in the past two years).
Stagnant Wages The cost of living keeps climbing while wages stagnate. Median real wages are 6.9% lower than in 2008. According to McKinsey, the most common reason people take on freelance or temporary work is simply to cover basic family needs. Cryptocurrency wallet Coinbase has been driving this point home in its recent ad campaign.
4. Overeducated Graduates A degree no longer guarantees stability. Millions of educated professionals are “underemployed,” as British labour economist Guy Standing tells us. They graduate into roles they’re overqualified for, or are pushed into freelance/portfolio careers when the market can’t absorb their skills.
5. The Broken Employment Contract For earlier generations, a job for life meant home ownership and a pension. That social contract has broken down. Today’s workers face stagnant pay, insecure housing, and retirement schemes that don’t cover a stable future. The whole notion of work itself has been having a legitimisation crisis.
6. Shorter Shelf Life of Skills Skills have a shorter shelf life. The World Economic Forum predicts 39% of existing skills will be obsolete or transformed by 2030. Credentials matter less than outcomes, pushing people to reskill independently — often outside the bounds of a traditional job.
7. AI & Automation (see it’s not the only factor!) AI and low-code platforms are removing tasks that used to require whole teams. Jobs disappear at one end, while new demand grows for independent specialists who can deploy and manage these tools. The shift accelerates the move away from payroll employment toward freelance and contract work.
Pull factors enticing workers towards entrepreneurial work
Entrepreneurial Education What was once insider knowledge is now open-source. Accelerators like Y Combinator, the spread of incubators worldwide, and online resources — from podcasts to case studies — have demystified entrepreneurship. Building a business feels like a skill you can learn, not a leap into the unknown.
Fame without the gatekeepers
In the past, opportunity was limited to the fortunate few. Aspiring startup founders would pitch to the wealthy gatekeepers, hoping to sell investors on the promise of delivering enormous returns. Now, creator tools and platforms like TikTok, Substack, YouTube provide permissionless access to fame and fortune.
Flexibility & Autonomy The pandemic reshaped expectations permanently. People want work that fits their lives, not the other way around. Burnout and dissatisfaction with long hours have normalised conversations about 4-day workweeks, flexible schedules, and portfolio careers. For many, self-employment is the clearest route to achieve it.
Again, this is a complex shift and other forces may well be at play, too.
So what? The implications to be mindful of, if everyone is suddenly an entrepreneur
You’d be forgiven for thinking that I have a personal investment in the future of work being more entrepreneurial - what with being an entrepreneur coach and all!
But just because my platform and work responds to this shift, I am far from celebrating it uncritically.
These implications aren’t all positive; in fact, some feel extremely destabilising for society and workers. My mission is much bigger than the self-serving nature of economic gain and so I’m not here to peddle some entrepreneurial dreamscape.
I want to see more people aligned with their work full stop, and, I know that a) many who work for themselves struggle to make ends meet and achieve their goals b) that the system is not currently supportive of entrepreneurship in a way that it ought to be.
But, my optimistic take is that with increased awareness and a desire to tackle these realities head-on, we’ll find some practical ways to adapt together. (My services being one of many support systems out there).
With that caveat out the way, here are the implications of a world where the 9–5 keeps shrinking and more of us work for ourselves.
1 - More Self-Employment is Not Necessarily Good for The Economy
For the most part, economists and politicians have drawn a positive correlation between entrepreneurship and growth in terms of GDP and employment, at least over the long run.
But where perhaps historically, primary definitions of entrepreneurship meant to build a company whose operations were likely supported by hiring staff (and thus providing employment opportunities), today, many successful entrepreneurs achieve scale without a team. Thanks to the rise of low and no code technologies and platforms that distribute code, media or IP at a global scale, many entrepreneurs can rise to £1m+ turnover whilst remaining solo.
In the zeitgeist in recent years, we’ve seen the glamourisation of the ‘one person business model’. A search term that will bring up some of my own work, even.
But by definition, a one person business does not stimulate local economies with job creation, and so the correlation to GDP growth has to be questioned.
The World Bank uses the criteria of a successful entrepreneur in this study, as one with permanent employees. And in this study, self-employed people are not viewed as favourably: “Self-employed people are usually not a source of any innovations (even in the broad sense of the word), and often their goal is not to grow their business (in the market sense).”
Whether or not you agree with these definitions, the data (at least historically) has shown that high self-employment rates in a country is not necessarily a good thing. Empirical literature has shown a robust, net negative relationship between the per capita GDP level and self-employment rate. Richer countries have less self-employment.
Why is this?
It is termed the ‘refugee effect’ by economists to describe necessity-based entrepreneurship: that is people being pushed into self-employment because payroll jobs disappear. A poorer economy has less wage employment opportunities and when there are challenges in the job market, self-employment becomes an alternative to unattractive job searching or simply a necessity of making ends meet.
2 - An oversupply of entrepreneurs is detrimental for incumbents
The pitch of entrepreneurship is that you can choose to do what you love: to take your skills, interests etc and earn more than you could with an employer acting as the ‘middleman’ and charging you out at a higher rate.
The sell of self-employment is that you can go directly to the problems that need solving, and solve them yourself. Sure you don’t get National Insurance, healthcare or a pension or sick or holiday pay (more on that in a moment) but as a reward for bearing that risk, you can keep 100% of the project fee and likely earn more for less hours logged. A higher annual wage than a salaried worker is very possible especially for highly skilled professionals.
This is all true, when it works.
But from what I’ve seen, a lot of self-employed people don’t go and recreate the same job that they left behind, to do the same work that their employer had them doing.
Instead, they breathe a sigh of relief to leave behind said boring job responsibility, and design their own job.
They build an ideal client profile of people they actually enjoy working with, and a set of projects, tasks and responsibilities that they are excited to pursue. If you’re going to run the risk of being an entrepreneur, you might as well do the work you love?!
A naive 27 year old version of me quit her job to be a career coach because of my background in recruitment, thinking I had a very novel idea that the world needed to hear about.
Of course we know the story ends well for me, but the reality is that there are many people who change careers when they go self-employed, to pursue more enjoyable work, and it doesn’t always work out.
That is because so many people are going after the same opportunities and types of clients. They share very similar passions and interests, so find out that there are many people who had the same idea - market incumbents - already offering these services.
Yes this is very common in the coaching industry (you’ll see many coaches ‘About Me’ page sharing how they felt lost, and then found their purpose (coaching) and how they can help you to find yours).
I wrote more about this topic here.
But it’s not just the B2C world of coaching that this happens. I have it on good knowledge (from three different players) that the fractional talent marketplaces out there do not struggle to find Fractional talent for B2B work — talent such as marketing, operational, product people who want to work with multiple clients on freelance engagements. But they do struggle to sign sufficient organisations up to hire said talent. There is an oversupply of talented professionals for the same part time, freelance and fractional work. Here’s one - not one of the three - who went on record to share this with me.
If organisations hire more fractional talent, and more people want coaching and similar services then the supply vs demand equilibrium balances, then we are all good.
So far, however, I have seen that a lot of the opportunities go to the same set of people who have more established brands and platforms and newer entrants have a harder time.
3- Self-employed workers miss out on basic benefits
The traditional employment contract didn’t just guarantee income. It came with built-in protections: health insurance, pensions, paid and sick leave, parental leave, unemployment safeguards. In short, it allowed you to be human — to have children, get sick, grieve, or grow old — and still be okay whilst working.
As more people shift off payroll, those safety nets are unraveling. In “cloud” or contractor setups, workers are often classified as self-employed by design, allowing companies to avoid labour laws and benefits. Experiments with portable benefits (like Portabl) exist, but they remain niche and rarely reach mass adoption.
Most independent workers are left to shoulder costs themselves — pensions, insurance, sick leave, tax compliance — and in some unfortunate cases to do so whilst barely making ends meet.
In France, self-employed workers pay into the Sécurité Sociale des Indépendants (SSI), even under the simplified micro-entrepreneur regime, which covers healthcare, parental leave, and a basic pension. And Spain, all autónomos must contribute monthly to the Régimen Especial de Trabajadores Autónomos (RETA), giving access to healthcare, retirement, and unemployment benefits.
But by contrast, in the UK (via Class 2 and 4 National Insurance) and the US (via the self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare), contributions exist but provide far thinner cover and little protection for sick leave or unemployment.
So the burden is heavy. Many self-employed people can’t save adequately for retirement. When income is precarious, long-term planning feels impossible. And the impact is uneven: women, caregivers, and minority groups bear the brunt, with less margin for error and fewer fallback options.
This isn’t just a financial risk. The emotional and operational load of managing benefits, juggling unstable income, and fearing time off for illness or rest is exhausting.
What keeps me up at night is this: as safety nets weaken, individuals absorb more risk while society carries the cost. Governments are slow to respond, treating self-employment as a choice, when in reality for many, it is necessity.
The compound effect of more entrepreneurs is not necessarily more prosperity. More self-employment doesn’t always mean stronger economies, more jobs, or even greater security for the entrepreneurs themselves. One day, if I am successful in my pursuits, I hope I might be able to bear some influence policy and systemic change. For the time being, the solutions I can offer are closer to home: through the services I provide to self-employed professionals. My clients range from first-time founders to entrepreneurs with decades of experience, and over the years I’ve built a set of tools and support mechanisms to help them navigate this reality.
This newsletter, Ellen from The Ask, is where I share those insights openly. And if you want more hands-on guidance, you can always explore what I offer on my website.
Now what? What you’ll want to consider, in an increasingly entrepreneurial future of work.
As we come to land, I want to leave you with some glimmers of hope.
Personally, I’m happier and more fulfilled since working for myself. I love setting my own hours, taking a Wednesday off because a friend is in town (today, in fact, this is going out while I’m at the sauna, lunch, and maybe the pub). I’m proud of what I’ve built. And I believe that business building is personal development.
I’ve also had the privilege of working closely with hundreds of others who’ve made the leap, and most are energised and excited by what they’re creating. So it isn’t all doom and gloom.
But — and the reason I’ve written 3,000+ words on this — the tide is changing. The shift is happening faster than we’re ready for. Not just as a warning for entrepreneurs with established businesses to protect, but for society as a whole whose infrastructure needs to accommodate for this new markey dynamic.
If my predictions are right, here’s what I’d suggest you focus on (as someone whos worked for themselves longer than any employed job, and helped 200+ entrepreneurs to do the same).
Some tried and tested advice
Build your Authority
I cannot state this one enough as its the entire basis upon which I’ve built not only my own independent path but how I support others to survive their own. Authority is modern career currency. In a post-9–5 world, being known and trusted is your greatest asset to standing above the competition, not feeling like you’re shouting into the void, and being able to command fees for your services that mean you don’t have to work silly hours or feel your work is precarious in some kind of race to the bottom.
There are certain methods to growing your Authority, which I’ve written a deep dive on here and I teach inside my various programmes.Be smart with your money
Save, build a runway, invest in your business’ growth — but keep your costs in check.
Build support systems
Surround yourself with peers, collaborators, mentors, and door-openers. No one serious builds in isolation.
Solve real problems
The best opportunities often lie in boring or niche areas. Follow the money where companies pay to have expensive problems solved, not just what’s sexy and immediately interesting — dig deeper.
Protect your assets
Get insured. Cover your income. Pay your taxes. Don’t be stupid or cut corners; it’s not worth the risk.
Double down on your strengths
Build a business around your uniqueness. Know yourself, then design around it. Your individuality is the blueprint for your best business strategy.
Focus, then simplify
Be clear on what you’re building. Make bold choices. Do less, better. Your energy is your greatest resource — use it where you’re strongest.
Back yourself
Confidence matters. Growth requires belief in your own value. Opportunities don’t knock; they’re created by those willing to bet on themselves.
I hope this essay has proven a good use of your time, provided some new insight, inspiration to act, or share.
If you’d like to write a similar piece of content that explains a complex problem or opportunity related to your Authority…. Leave your details for more info on how, or join this masterclass to learn the basics of Long Form Writing on Thurs 9th Oct!
From me, a self-employed worker, in Malaga, this September. Life can be pretty good! 😄
