The bar chart illustrates the proportion of independent employees of the total workforce across five countries between 1998 and 2008.
Overall, despite a noticeable decline, Greece and Turkey showed the highest figures. By contrast, although there was a slight increase, the percentage of self-employed workers in the remaining countries – Russian Republic, Slovakia, and Czech Republic – remained the lowest.
In terms of leading countries, both Greece and Turkey experienced a drop in the proportion of independent employment. The percentage of self-employed individuals in Greece declined slightly from around 42% to 35% between 1998 and 2008, whereas the figure for Turkey was more pronounced: starting at a staggering 55%, the percentage of self-employed workers witnessed a considerable drop to approximately 39% in this 10-year period.
In contrast to the declining trends, the proportion of independent employees in the Russian Republic and Slovakia accounted for a mere 5% of the workforce, a figure that then grew slightly by around only one percentage point in 2008, making them the least independent workers. While the increase in these figures was negligible (around a 2-percentage-point improvement) in the Czech Republic, the proportion of self-employed workers there doubled from 6% to 12% between 1998 and 2008.