Highly skilled solo self-employed individuals in the digital economy

Technological advances, widespread high-speed internet and economic growth are continuously reshaping labour markets in the age of digital transformation. Highly skilled professionals (Managers, Professionals, Technicians and Associate Professionals) working on their own account, offering services on a freelance basis, have actively responded to this increasing trend of the gig economy by promoting flexibility and productivity to established organisations and businesses. Using Eurostat data, this chapter demonstrates that the proportion of highly skilled solo self-employed persons has significantly increased in European Union countries over the years 2011–2020. Methodologically, the study relies on the employment of multivariate regression analysis and investigates the determinants of freelancing among European countries. The main findings show that freelancing is positively related to the spread of internet users. Freelancing is also to a large extent related to the country’s tax and social security policies. The results show a significant and negative impact of the proportions of social contributions paid from revenues on the shares of freelancing. Other analysed variables included the role of foreign direct investments, business freedom and the country’s unemployment rate. We propose several recommendations for future research on freelancing to close out the article.