Speaking personally, I find that many tools - high-speed internet, cheap computers & other office equipment, VoIP, web services - are already here for the self-employed.

As for numbers, we are seeing a general increase in the self-employed in Canada; from 1.7 million in 1986 to 2.1 million in 1996 and now 2.5 million in 2006. Not a great increases, but an increase. The US data show about 20 million people as self-employed, which has also been an upward trend.