The short version
2026 editionKey takeaways
Each takeaway links to its canonical data row. Reported figures belong to their cited producer; modeled results are labeled as calculations.
- Total, 16 years and over: independent contractors on sole or main job, in thousands: 11,904 (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Total, 16 years and over: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 7.4% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Computer and mathematical occupations: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 3% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Legal occupations: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 8.3% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 28.1% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Sales and related occupations: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 10.7% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Office and administrative support occupations: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 3.1% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Information: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 10.5% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Real estate and rental and leasing: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 24.2% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Professional and technical services: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 12.2% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Management, administrative, and waste services: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 16.3% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Educational services: independent contractors as a share of group employment: 1.9% (July 2023 supplement; verified in September 2026).U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
How many workers are independent contractors?
The count describes people whose sole or main job is an independent contractor arrangement. The percentage uses all employed people in the named group as its denominator, not the total contractor workforce.
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| Population | Independent contractors (thousands) | Share of group employment |
|---|---|---|
| Total, 16 years and over | 11,904 | 7.4% |
Industry and occupation views overlap. Parent groups include their subgroups. Do not sum rows or relabel the count as registered freelance businesses.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — November 8, 2024
How do independent contractors compare by occupation?
The count describes people whose sole or main job is an independent contractor arrangement. The percentage uses all employed people in the named group as its denominator, not the total contractor workforce.
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns →
| occupation | Independent contractors (thousands) | Share of group employment |
|---|---|---|
| Management, professional, and related occupations | 5,303 | 7.5% |
| Management, business, and financial operations occupations | 2,993 | 9.6% |
| Management occupations | 2,239 | 10.8% |
| Business and financial operations occupations | 754 | 7.3% |
| Professional and related occupations | 2,310 | 5.8% |
| Computer and mathematical occupations | 203 | 3% |
| Architecture and engineering occupations | 170 | 4.4% |
| Life, physical, and social science occupations | 122 | 6.1% |
| Community and social services occupations | 167 | 5.4% |
| Legal occupations | 182 | 8.3% |
| Education, training, and library occupations | 159 | 1.9% |
| Arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media occupations | 1,001 | 28.1% |
| Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations | 306 | 3.1% |
| Service occupations | 1,901 | 7.2% |
| Healthcare support occupations | 164 | 3.3% |
| Protective service occupations | 30 | 0.9% |
| Food preparation and serving related occupations | 104 | 1.3% |
| Building and grounds cleaning and maintenance occupations | 761 | 13.2% |
| Personal care and service occupations | 842 | 19.7% |
| Sales and office occupations | 2,060 | 6.7% |
| Sales and related occupations | 1,553 | 10.7% |
| Office and administrative support occupations | 507 | 3.1% |
| Natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations | 1,661 | 11.9% |
| Farming, fishing, and forestry occupations | 60 | 5.6% |
| Construction and extraction occupations | 1,212 | 15.1% |
| Installation, maintenance, and repair occupations | 388 | 7.9% |
| Production, transportation, and material moving occupations | 979 | 5% |
| Production occupations | 253 | 3.1% |
| Transportation and material moving occupations | 725 | 6.3% |
Industry and occupation views overlap. Parent groups include their subgroups. Do not sum rows or relabel the count as registered freelance businesses.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — November 8, 2024
How do independent contractors compare by industry?
The count describes people whose sole or main job is an independent contractor arrangement. The percentage uses all employed people in the named group as its denominator, not the total contractor workforce.
Scroll horizontally to compare all columns →
| industry | Independent contractors (thousands) | Share of group employment |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture and related industries | 282 | 12.8% |
| Nonagricultural industries | 11,622 | 7.3% |
| Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction | 9 | 1.5% |
| Construction | 2,121 | 18.5% |
| Manufacturing | 347 | 2.2% |
| Durable goods manufacturing | 254 | 2.4% |
| Nondurable goods manufacturing | 92 | 1.7% |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 927 | 4.5% |
| Wholesale trade | 185 | 5% |
| Retail trade | 742 | 4.5% |
| Transportation and utilities | 938 | 9.5% |
| Transportation and warehousing | 899 | 10.8% |
| Utilities | 39 | 2.6% |
| Information | 302 | 10.5% |
| Financial activities | 1,185 | 10.8% |
| Finance and insurance | 405 | 5.3% |
| Real estate and rental and leasing | 780 | 24.2% |
| Professional and business services | 2,864 | 13.5% |
| Professional and technical services | 1,736 | 12.2% |
| Management, administrative, and waste services | 1,128 | 16.3% |
| Education and health services | 1,050 | 2.9% |
| Educational services | 248 | 1.9% |
| Health care and social assistance | 802 | 3.5% |
| Leisure and hospitality | 752 | 5.1% |
| Arts, entertainment, and recreation | 579 | 14.4% |
| Accommodation and food services | 173 | 1.6% |
| Other services | 1,099 | 14.4% |
| Public administration | 29 | 0.3% |
Industry and occupation views overlap. Parent groups include their subgroups. Do not sum rows or relabel the count as registered freelance businesses.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — November 8, 2024
Does this measure include every freelancer and side gig?
No. A person with a traditional main job and occasional independent side work is outside this main-job contractor count. Freelancing is broader everyday language, not a replacement for the survey definition.
The source publishes separate second-job tables. This edition does not add them to main-job estimates, which could double-count people.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — November 8, 2024
Are independent contractors and contingent workers the same?
No. An alternative work arrangement concerns how someone works; contingency concerns whether work is temporary under the survey’s definition. Neither classification can be inferred automatically from the other.
These survey categories also do not decide a person’s legal employment or tax classification.
Primary source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — November 8, 2024
How should a service business use these benchmarks?
Use them to describe workforce arrangements, then keep your operational records grounded in each engagement’s actual scope, deliverables, contacts and payment terms.
The benchmark does not establish fair fees, contractor profitability, labor-law compliance or the superiority of one staffing model.
How this report was built
Methodology and limitations
- We extracted the independent-contractor columns of BLS Table 6, retaining the distinction between levels in thousands and group-specific employment shares.
- For multiple jobholders, the arrangement is determined from the main job. We do not combine main-job and second-job counts or treat contingent and alternative arrangements as disjoint categories.
- The observation is July 2023, not 2026. This page’s verification date records when the evidence was checked, not when people were surveyed.
What these numbers cannot tell you
- Survey self-reports, sampling error and the main-job definition limit the interpretation. These estimates are not a count of all occasional freelance activity.
- Counts in thousands are rounded. Do not use displayed levels to claim more precise percentages than BLS reports.
- No worker-classification, tax or hiring advice is provided. Contractor prevalence does not measure earnings or job quality.
Freshness and corrections
Maintained by the Workspace369 editorial team. Review when BLS releases a new Contingent Worker Supplement; check source availability annually. The edition date changes only when the evidence or content is substantively reviewed; it does not change the underlying observation period.
First edition: . Data extraction, source attribution and arithmetic checked for this edition. No independent peer review is claimed.
Found an error or a newer primary release? Send a correction with the source and affected statistic. Confirmed corrections should be recorded in the revision history before republishing.
Primary sources and provenance
Every reported numeric cell links directly to its producer. The downloads include exact table or workbook locators, observation periods, access dates, formulas and input references.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsContingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements: Table 6 ↗Published November 8, 2024. Accessed September 13, 2026.U.S. federal government data; attribution requested. No agency endorsement.
Source file fingerprint (SHA-256)
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Made to be checked, then cited
How to cite this report
For a source-reported statistic, credit the original publisher and link to the exact row here when using our compilation. For a modeled result, cite Workspace369 and include the assumptions. Linking to this page does not make us the original producer of third-party data.
Workspace369. (2026-09-13). Freelancer and Independent Contractor Statistics. https://workspace369.com/research/freelancer-independent-contractor-statistics/. Primary sources and observation periods as listed in the report.