The self-employed are not a closed class: as we shall see in Chapter 3, the still large numbers of people entering self-employment despite the recent continuing downward trend in the entry rate are playing an important part in creating jobs; entrepreneurs utilizing their experience in one industry to enter another are creating particularly many jobs; over the past decade, the number of self-employed business owners has declined by more than one million due to the outflow of middleaged entrepreneurs; the principal causes of the decline in self-employment are deflation and the decline in incomes compared with those of employed persons (increasing entry risk), and not government regulations curbing entry to the ranks of the self-employed; and businesses move frequently between size categories, with self-employed businesses increasingly incorporating in the medium and long-term. This is consistent with the position that, due to the low barriers to entry and active competition, entries, withdrawals and size movements are common.例文帳に追加

第3章で述べるように、最近は開業率の低下傾向が続いている中で依然多くの開業者が雇用創出等で重要な役割を果たしていること、特に異業種での経験を活かして他業種に参入し多くの雇用を創出している開業者も見られること、この10年間を見ると中堅世代の流入が減少したことを主因として自営業主が100万人以上減少していること、自営業減少の主因はデフレと対雇用者比での所得低下（開業リスク上昇）によるものであり自営業層への流入を抑制するような政府規制等によるものでないこと、規模間の上昇・下降は多く見られ自営業の中でも中長期的には法人化が進んでいること等は、自営業が閉じられた階層ではなく、参入障壁の低さと活発な競争を背景として、多数の参入、退出、規模移動が行われているとの見方と整合的である。 - 経済産業省