Craft marketplace Etsy recently released a report based on a survey of 4,000 of its sellers called, Building an Etsy Economy: The New Face of Creative Entrepreneurship (PDF).

Key findings

• 86 percent | Percent of Etsy sellers who are women
• 76 percent | Call their Etsy shop a business
• 90 percent | Say they are planning on increasing their sales.
• 30 percent | Say it’s their full-time job
• Almost all | Consider their Etsy earnings to be an important source of income.

“For 30 percent of Etsy sellers, their creative business—both on and off Etsy—is their sole occupation. For the rest, their creative business supplements other jobs, contributing an average of 15 percent to total household income overall. This money makes a difference—44 percent use this income for necessary household expenses.”

Indie working is far larger than just the on-demand economy

With Uber and the on-demand economy  getting so much attention, it’s important to remember that the on-demand economy is a small segment of the overall independent worker sector. The Etsy report nicely reminds us that independent work and micro businesses continue to thrive and expand outside of the on-demand economy.