WASHINGTON–New data around employment in the United States show some of the challenges being created for credit unions around the more-than-a-century-old concept of field of membership.
The data released by the Labor Department show a surge among new entrepreneurs into the self-employment workforce. The number of unincorporated self-employed workers has risen by 500,000 since the start of the pandemic to 9.44 million. That is the highest total since the financial-crisis year 2008, except for this summer. The total amounts to an increase of 6% in the self-employed, while the overall U.S. employment total remains nearly 3% lower than before the pandemic, according to the Labor Department.
For credit unions, the ongoing evolution will mean new challenges around who is eligible to join for some CUs and how to better quantify others for all credit unions, especially as an increasing number of loan applicants lack a traditional W-2.
‘Want to be Their Own Boss’
“The data from the Labor Department confirms what we are seeing from our own spike in membership and across the self-employment demographic as a whole–people either were forced into self-employment due to the pandemic or made the leap voluntarily because they want to be their own boss,” said Keith Hall, president and CEO of the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE). “Many Americans want the flexibility and autonomy of self-employment and that is a hallmark of being your own boss. We are thrilled to welcome these new entrepreneurs into our ranks and are committed to making sure our nation’s laws and regulations support their growth across all demographics.”
Much like credit unions, Hall said the NASE will be lobbying Congress to “continue to level the playing field on their behalf…Our laws and regulations must grow along with these economic changes to support existing, and new, small business owners by enabling them to grow and lift our economy into the future.”