Catherwood LibraryILR School

Battered by last year?s terrorist attacks, the collapse of the dot com bubble, and corporate scandals and mismanagement, the U.S. economy may also be suffering from decreased entrepreneurialism. According to a new study of US Labor Department data, self-employment dropped to a record low in February---a sharp departure from the increased self-employment that has followed, and played a role in pulling the country out of, every other recession in the past fifty years. Among the possible reasons behind this decrease in entrepreneurial initiative are skyrocketing health care costs that make it harder for entrepreneurs to insure themselves and their employees, increased consumer credit card debt and decreased venture capital investment that have cut into financing options for start-up companies, and corporate scandals that have tarnished the American perception of business people.