The chart illustrates the percentage of the self-employed workers across all five nations between 1998 and 2008.
Overall, there was an increase in the proportion of the workers who are self-employed in Russia, Slovakia and Czech republic, while a decline was seen in Greece and Turkey. In addition, Turkey consistently had the highest figures throughout the period.
The share of the labor who work freely in the Russian republic started at about 6% in 1998, after which it experienced a growth to around 7% in 2008. Similar changes can be seen in the figure for Slovakia , which rose from approximately 7% to just over 10%. Conversely, the percentage of these people in Greece increased from north of 40% in 1998 to upward of 34%.
More than 52% of the contractors were independent in Turkey in 1998, with a significant decrease to just under 40% in 2008. Meanwhile, this figure for the Czech republic went up, ending at roughly 15% in the final year.
