Earned income of self-employed people in 2011 - A rise among “traditional” self-employed and auto-entrepreneurs, a decrease for the self-employed overall

At the end of 2011 in France, over 2.3 million people outside the farming sector had a self-employed activity. 416,000 of them were “auto-entrepreneurs”, i.e. 75,000 more than at the same point in 2010. In 2011 “traditional” self-employed people earned an average of 37,200 euros annually: legal experts earned more than 110,000 euros while artists only declared 15,000 euros. Auto-entrepreneurs made an average of 5430 euros from their activity between 2010 and 2011, and the average income increased by 1.6% in constant euros for the traditionally self-employed and by 2.1% for auto-entrepreneurs. However, it fell by 1.9% for the self-employed as a whole because the share of auto-entrepreneurs rose: in 2011, they represented 18% of all self-employed people. Excluding auto-entrepreneurs, incomes increased significantly in IT, artistic and recreational activities and in the legal professions, but declined sharply for food, accommodation and catering professionals, in retail and automobile repairs, and among taxi drivers. After three consecutive years of decline, income in the construction industry picked up slightly (+ 0.4%).