Even Uncle Sam says we’re a free agent nation

New Census Bureau data show yet another increase in what it calls “nonemployer businesses” — businesses without any paid employees. Those enterprises increased 4.7 percent in 2004 to a whopping 19.5 million. And that figure, of course, doesn’t include many other types of free agents — from several kinds of freelancers to independents who receive W-2s to enterprises like mine (a sole proprietorship with a paid employee).