Harold --

The U.S. Census shows here that in 2002 there were 17.6 million "nonemployer" firms (mainly self-employed people) and 5.7 million employer firms (i.e., organizations with a payroll).

The nonemployers accounted for only about 3.4% of all business receipts, though. The class includes mainly entities with at least $1,000 in revenue (so in theory not those with no income in a given year).

In 2003, there were 113.4 million employees, or roughly 17 employees for every self-employed person.

37% of them work at firms with 2,500 or more employees; another 12% work at firms between 500 and 2,500. That's half of all workers, with 14% more in the 100-500 employee group.

I agree with the idea that the number of self-employed people is growing (and some of them become employers, most often in the under-10-employees slot). At the same time, large organizations will continue and will even flourish.

"Informal learning" has a place in everyone's toolkit, though I think it can be counterproductive to call it "informal" if your client employs 100 or more people. (I know you know this!)

Another element to support the self-employed down here, alas, is a health care (or at least a catastrophe-avoidance) system...