Economic Strain for Self-Employed: Rising Unpaid Invoices and Price Pressures

The ongoing price crisis is piling up bills for freelancers and the self-employed. A large share of these workers are dealing with unpaid invoices, with recent numbers showing that roughly 41.6% of clients fail to pay while income remains uncertain. Last year, guilt about financial strain among self-employed people rose by nearly ten percentage points. These insights come from a barometer released by the ATA association on a recent Monday, based on a survey of 1,085 self-employed individuals conducted from September 19 to 22. Lorenzo Love, the association’s chair, cautions that activity among about half of the self-employed is starting to dip, and six in ten respondents expect bills to worsen through the rest of the year [ATA Barometer, 2024].