Predictors of Early-Career Self-Employment among Millennials in the Digital Economy: The Role of The Great Recession

Abstract

In today's digital economy, millennials seek flexibility and task significance, making selfemployment an attractive career option. Although millennials are growing to become the largest generation in the United States workforce, evidence is scant regarding what drives their self-employment decisions. This study explores predictors of selfemployment among early millennials (i.e. those born between 1980 and 1984) in the years before, during, and after The Great Recession. Using a national U.S. database (NLSY97), we find that millennials who were satisfied with their early-career jobs were more likely to become self-employed before the recession, and also after the recession. During the recession, however, our indicator of job satisfaction is nonsignificant, although the coefficient indicates an inverse relationship. Our results also suggest that higher autonomy (less parental monitoring) during adolescence is positively related to millennials' selfemployment decision in their early-career stage, especially among women and those who grew up in an urban area.