Business Visualizations
Study Shows Three Decades of Self-Employment Trends
The U.S. economy and workforce landscape have seen many dramatic changes in the past three decades, not just in terms of trends, crises, and types of jobs workers pursue, but also in the way we work and structure careers. The team at Ooma created a new study displaying trending changes in self-employment. Their chart shows the percentage of the workforce that was self-employed each year. The numbers show that self-employment has always played a strong role in the American economy, with new Internet and digital industries pushing it to evolve. These changes present new opportunities and shake-ups to old work patterns.
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The Rise and Fall of Traditional Self-Employment
Ooma’s analysis is based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It shows that in 1994, self-employment represented 12.2% of the workforce. That’s 14.93 million Americans, a peak representing an economy where entrepreneurs, freelancers, contractors, and trades workers formed the backbone of the economy.
The next two decades saw a shift in self-employment, however. It declined to 9.8% by 2018, representing a shift to corporate employment in the era of social media and dot-com booms. The economy was recovering from a major recession that affected self-employed workers. Workers needed stability and benefits, and they turned away from gig work during the recession, with numbers plummeting to 59% in 2023.
The Impact of the Internet
Smartphone technology was developed in the late 1990s and perfected throughout the 2000s until it became a force that transformed the way we work. New apps like Uber, Instacart, and DoorDash ushered in a huge demand for gig work in the form of delivery drivers and people who could transform their own car into a taxi service. These platforms offered many work opportunities on top of a flexible schedule. People using these apps to get jobs could work whenever they wished.
Social media offered other exciting self-employment opportunities as we watched the rise of influencers and content creators who could market all kinds of digital goods and other services. A digital ecosystem made it more possible for personal brands to affordably market themselves to a wider audience.
The Pandemic as a Catalyst
The COVID-19 pandemic prompted huge changes in the way we work. Businesses closed down, layoffs surged, and many people looked for the quickest way to get flexible new employment. Self-employment options were the most accessible for many people. The self-employment workforce rose again to 4.2% in 2020. Many began to feel that starting their own business was more reliable than trusting a corporation. Marginalized people were especially drawn to self-employment, particularly women with families, and Black and Hispanic women. The flexible scheduling and greater power over work decisions was a more equitable fit for these women.
The team’s data proves that self-employment is so much more than just an alternative career choice. It can be an equalizer and drive American innovation. Self-employment can be a huge boost to local communities and continues to serve a vital role in our economy.
Business Visualizations
Study Identifies the Best Cities for First-Time Real Estate Investors
People who want to jump into the real estate investment market have an important question to contend with: Which city should they invest their money in? The team at LLC Attorney has arrived with answers in their new study, which condenses tons of information on the real estate market to identify the 50 best cities for first-time investors. Each town has its own unique characteristics, benefits, and setbacks, but as the team proves, they each offer a powerful incentive for real estate investors.
The team started their study by pulling the 100 most populated cities from the Real Estate Investment Index and pinpointing their 50 ideal cities. The towns on their list are affordable, have high rental income potential, and have landlord-friendly laws. To create their list, the team considered state-level laws on rentals, rent-controlled cities, and the job market in each location. Their potential rental income calculations are based on average monthly rent, median home sale price, gross rental yield, and the market temperature. As for landlord-friendliness, the team considered average eviction time, security deposit limit, and rent control laws.
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Out of all 50 cities, the team determined that Port St. Lucie, Florida, is the best city for first-time real estate investors to buy property. This growing city shows no signs of slowing, with median property sale prices lower than other major Florida cities, like Miami and Tampa. The job market in Port St. Lucie is strong in healthcare and education, and business-friendly for entrepreneurs. These factors all combine to represent a city that’s attracting more residents every day. It will be a reliable source of rental income for investors.
Cape Coral, Florida, took the second-place spot for similar reasons. Low property taxes, a growing population, and residents flocking to beaches and parks for seasonal living push up the Cape Coral housing demand and rental potential. The lone midwestern city in the top four is Cleveland, Ohio, drawing in investors with affordable housing and lots of demand because of the strong employers based in this lakeside city. Garland, Texas, comes in fourth with more affordable housing than neighboring Dallas, while still located close to all the dining and entertainment that Dallas offers. Popular Garland employers include FedEx, Interceramic USA, Presbyterian Hospital, and Arena Brands, Inc.
In addition to focusing on the 50 cities the team lists, they suggest that first-time investors look to more seasoned investors for advice. Many expert investors speak at conferences, publish guidebooks, and produce educational videos to share their knowledge. Networking with fellow investors is another great way for new investors to gain support and learn quickly. There are countless networking opportunities on social media and in local groups like your local chamber of commerce. Last, investors need to decide whether they’re looking to buy property close to home that they can maintain themselves, or property far away, in which case they’ll need to hire a property manager. No matter your path, the LLC Attorney team offers a great start with this data.
Business Visualizations
New Collection of Cybersecurity of Tips and Statistics Highlights Importance for Business
Cybercrimes are an all-too-common occurrence that every modern business needs to protect itself from. The team at Ooma makes a compelling case for this with a new graphic packed full of information on cyberattacks and tips on cybersecurity. Data leaks and ransomware attacks can affect large and small businesses, leading to very real consequences that can impact customers. These attacks can destroy finances, disrupt operations for weeks, and damage the essential trust between customer and business.
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Cybersecurity is the protection of digital systems and networks from attacks that can involve phishing scams, malware installation, and data theft. Bad actors can be motivated by anything from financial gain to espionage and even the entertainment of a prank. Cybersecurity strategies allow businesses to protect themselves with a combination of data encryption, staff training, network security, and threat monitoring.
Businesses have to invest in strong cybersecurity, as we can see from global spending exceeding $1.25 trillion in 2025. This number doesn’t sound so high when cyberattacks are expected to cost the economy ten times that amount in the next year. The average cost of a data breach for companies is over $5 million, not including fines, reputation damage, and revenue loss.
Some areas of business are targeted more often than others. These sectors include:
- State institutions/political systems: 51.78%
- Critical infrastructure: 41.73%
- Corporate targets: 15.14%
- Social groups: 6.17%
- Media and education: Around 6% each
Attackers go after these sectors the most because daily life and economic stability depend on them, so they have high value to criminals and bad actors from other nations. Threats come in many forms, and to some extent, every message opened online is a risk, but these are the most common threats:
- Phishing: Fraudulent emails that trick employees into revealing passwords and sensitive data.
- Ransomware: Malicious software that blocks access to data and files until a ransom is paid.
- Malware: Software that’s damaging and gains unauthorized access to a system.
- Data breaches: Unauthorized individuals gain access to confidential information.
- Denial-of-service attacks: A server or network is purposely overloaded to become unavailable to users.
- Insider threats: Employees who maliciously or accidentally compromise security systems.
After making the threats clear, the Ooma team shared the best cybersecurity tips for businesses. Their list includes:
- Train employees to prevent cyber-attacks.
- Install antivirus software.
- Keep security software up to date.
- Use a firewall and data encryption to stay secure.
- Secure all Wi-Fi networks.
- Use strong passwords.
- Create user accounts for every employee.
- Enable multi-factor authentication.
- Back up important business data.
- Limit employee access to data and software installation.
- Restrict administrative privileges.
- Secure your payment systems.
- Protect business mobile phones.
- Monitor cloud service providers.
- Conduct regular cybersecurity audits.
The team’s chart, which is fully illustrated and easy to read, provides a wealth of information on their advice.
Business Visualizations
Study Analyzes How Company Age Shapes Remote Work Adoption
Before the Internet, the traditional workday happened on-site or in an office space. Businesses relied on face-to-face interaction in customer service and functions. Physical presences were needed to answer phones, greet clients, keep a filing system, and produce work. But high-speed internet access and video conferencing changed the face of the workday. Office-based work was no longer necessary. The COVID-10 pandemic pushed workers home by necessity, and once the danger passed, employees began to demand the continuing flexibility of a work-at-home schedule. However, not every company or business is ready to adapt.
The team at Ooma performed a comprehensive analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2022 Annual Business Survey. The findings revealed interesting patterns in how the age of a company influences its decision to offer remote work. The youngest companies, those under 2 years old, most commonly offered work-from-home options at 43.9%. The older the company, the fewer remote work options there were. Here are the statistics: 41.8% for businesses aged 2–3 years, 40.8% for 4–5 years, 40.4% for 6–10 years, 38.2% for 11–15 years, and 35.6% for companies with 16 or more years in operation.
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When studying why companies don’t adopt remote work, the primary obstacle was clear and consistent across companies of all ages. 56.8% to 69.1% of companies said that job incompatibility was the biggest barrier to remote work. Obviously, not all tasks can be performed remotely. After job incompatibility, companies cited security concerns as the biggest barrier to remote work. However, the younger the company, the less likely they were to have computer security concerns. Younger companies are more likely to rely on cloud-based work software with built-in security features.
After these two reasons, management complexity was the most common barrier. The larger the company, the more difficult managing remote workers might become. The most interesting category might have been the data on companies reporting “no limiting factors” to remote work. 39.7% of the youngest companies said there were no barriers and 27.6% of the oldest companies believed there were no barriers to offering remote work.
The team also examined the number of remote workers and changes over time. It was clear that the COVID-19 pandemic skyrocketed the number of remote workers. Only 23% of remote work-capable employees actually worked from home in 2019. By 2023, 35% of these employees worked from home, down from the pandemic peak of 38% in 2021. Although there was a peak in remote work at the height of the pandemic, it’s clear that remote work is much more common now than it was before the pandemic.
The findings point to newer companies having more willingness and capability to offer remote work, though large legacy businesses have the biggest staff and most resources to hire remote workers. However, they have the biggest challenges in adapting old systems to new ways of working, a task young companies don’t need to worry about.
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