Self‑employment rates higher on job quality

New Gallup polling of ~18,000 U.S. workers (Jan–Feb 2025) finds self‑employed people report higher scores on a five‑part ‘quality jobs’ index — notably 66% report strong agency and voice versus 50% of employees. The data complicate popular narratives that gig or independent work is uniformly worse than traditional employment and suggests autonomy and perceived job quality are important, measurable dimensions of modern labor. — If self‑employment often produces higher subjective job quality, labor policy and debates over classification, benefits, and regulation need to account for tradeoffs between autonomy and protections.