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Marcus: Changes in the jobs market, in Indiana and America

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4 months ago

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Marcus: Changes in the jobs market, in Indiana and America

Morton Marcus
 |  Columnist

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Our standard reports are about people who have jobs, those who don’t, those who are looking for jobs and those who are not. But we don’t hear much about the self-employed, the people we call business proprietors.

It’s important to understand we are discussing jobs in an economy where the same person may hold two jobs in the day and be the proprietor of an online, garage-based home business on weekends.

In 2022, there were 54.4 million American proprietors (business owners). That’s an increase of 15 million or 38% in a decade. Indiana saw an increase of 193,000 proprietors (29%) in those 10 years.

Some think the COVID-19 pandemic and working at home prompted the rise in proprietorship.  Others credit the Internet’s flexibility in reaching customers, suppliers and examining alternatives without requiring investment in a brick-and-mortar store.

Whatever the causal factors, proprietors represented 22% of American jobs in 2012 and were 26% in 2022. Further, they accounted for 45% of the increase in jobs over those years. Indiana also saw a rise in proprietors as a portion of total jobs, but at rates below the nation. We saw proprietors move from 18% to 21% of all jobs, which was 38% of our job growth.

Indiana is heavily concentrated in wage and salaried (W&S) jobs. In 2012, 82% of Hoosier jobs were in that category compared to 78% nationally. Between 2012 and 2022, W&S jobs accounted for 61% of Indiana’s job growth and 55% nationally.

Yes, the number of Indiana W&S jobs grew less rapidly (10.3%) than the nation’s (13.2%). Likewise, Indiana’s total W&S earnings failed to keep pace with the nation, growing by 52% vs 57%. However, our growth rate for earnings per job almost matched the nation’s (37.5% vs 38.7%). Unfortunately, our W&S earnings per job in 2022 were nearly 16% ($13,300) below the national average.

Hoosier farm proprietors saw a 2022 that was far better than 2012. Total income was more than double the level in 2012 while nationally the gain was only 24%. Where the average Hoosier farm proprietor beat the average for the nation by only $830 in 2012, that differential was over $34,000 in 2022. 

We’ll let the ag-economists tell us if that was the Hoosier switch from livestock to crops or some other change.

Between 2012 and 2022, earnings per non-farm proprietor fell 1.7% nationally and 7% in Indiana. But the spread between the national and Indiana non-farm proprietors remained large although declining from $18,200 to $15,100. Why?

The growth in the number of non-farm proprietors was 40% nationally and 32% in Indiana. Maybe Hoosiers are not as eager to become proprietors as much as those in other states. That might mean existing and new Hoosier proprietors were better prepared to make money in shifting times.

Whatever the answer, some state agency will take the credit.

Morton Marcus is an economist. Reach him via email at mortonjmarcus@gmail.com.

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