Last year, there were 698 thousand self-employed workers and of these, almost 88,000 were economically dependent on a single entity, that is, the majority of income came from a single client.
Almost 13% of the total 698,900 self-employed workers in 2023 had a client that represented 75% or more of their activity’s income, 2.1 percentage points less than in the previous year, according to data from INE.
According to annual employment statistics, published by the National Statistics Institute (INE), of the same total number of workers, 12.3% indicated that customers set their working hours, 0.3 percentage points more than in 2022.
In the set of both types of dependence, 1.9% (13,500) of self-employed workers were identified simultaneously in economic and organizational dependence, which represents a decrease of 0.5 percentage points compared to 2022. INE collects this information annually , to assess the impact of clients on the activity of self-employed workers, namely the existence of clients who, alone, represent a high percentage of the worker’s income and who have the possibility of stipulating the worker’s working hours.
The statistical authority also noted that 6.9% (48,200) of self-employed workers indicated that they had, in the last 12 months, only one client, which represents a decrease of 1.5 percentage points compared to the previous year, 4. 1% (28,500) had between two and nine clients, one of which was dominant, 0.5 points less than in 2022, and 1.6% (11,200) had 10 or more clients, also one of which was dominant, 0 less. 1 points than the previous year.
“In other words, 12.6% (87,900) of self-employed workers had a dominant client in 2023, which corresponds to a decrease of 2.1 percentage points compared to 2022″, explained INE, highlighting that ” When a self-employed person has only one client or, having two or more clients, one is dominant, it is considered that there is economic dependence”. According to the entity, economic dependence is more common among men (14%) than among women (10.4%), among young people aged 16 to 34 (20.6%), individuals who have completed education secondary or post-secondary (14.2%), those who work in the agriculture, animal production, hunting, forestry and fishing sector (44.3%) and in the West and Tagus Valley regions (20.3%).
In cases where clients determine working hours, it is considered to be “organizational dependence”, which, like economic dependence, is more common among young people aged 16 to 34 (15.5 %) and among those with secondary or post-secondary education (14.8%).
However, it is higher among women (13.6%) than men (11.4%), in the services sector (13.4%) and in the Setúbal Peninsula (23.5%).
