Self-employment was the solution for 15% of the Portuguese looking for a job

The European Union in 2017 had 228 million people employed, of which 33 million had created their employment situation with their own hands. That decision, of going forward and starting your own business, is the option of many people for numerous reasons: from wanting a more flexible schedule to continuing a family business. However, some people are motivated by the fact that they were unemployed, and had to find alternatives.

That is precisely what happened with the Portuguese. 15% of the people who started a business have decided to do so because they could not find a job, according to the data released by the Eurostat.

However, that ratio was higher in Romania, where 38% of the self-employed said their motivation was that they could not find a job, followed by Croatia (23%). On the other hand, in Austria, unemployment seems to not have almost any influence in self-employment, with only 4% of those creating a business admitting there was a link between the decision and their employment situation.

Now, back to our country, there are several reasons motivating the Portuguese to create their own company/business. First — and foremost (28%) — people identified a business opportunity as a reason, and secondly, continuing a family business seems to have motivated 17% of those self-employed.

As for the possibility of having flexible timetables, it didn’t seem to significantly motivate the Portuguese people when it came to deciding whether they would or not start their own business, with only 3% saying it did influence their decision. Portugal is the country with the second lowest percentage, right after Greece, where only 1% said having a flexible timetable mattered.

There are also several differences between men and women: whereas women like to benefit from a rather more flexible schedule, men do not mind that much about this factor.