"soft" mechanisms to remove unemployed people from the labour pool have been used for a long time, to reduce the visible statistics on the rate of unemployment. It leads people to talk about other measures like the rate of under-employment, the number of people seeking work, the number of people in part time work who seek full time work.

But, since many people choose this life to get work:life balance outcomes it shouldn't be assumed all freelance and self-employed are there for nefarious reasons. Just, that quite a few of them are, because there aren't good alternatives.

"I won't give you a job as a bricklayer but I will subcontract to you if you form your own company" for instance...

I’ve been a self-employed solo dev for 11 years and not to brag, but I’ve done very well for the last six or seven in particular. I’ve also helped lots of other freelancers figure this stuff out, ping me if you need some advice (goes for anyone): hi@ryanwaggoner.com