More evidence that the economy’s statistical apparatus isn’t keeping up with the economy itself. A new study out of Massachusetts finds that free agents in that state are “undercounted by the hundreds of thousands.” According to economic geographer Laurence Goss, 17 percent of Massachusetts’s labor force are sole proprietors. But — amazingly — they’re not counted in the state’s official economic data because they don’t have “jobs.” What’s more, microbusinesses (those with fewer than four employees) and sole proprietors together constitute about one-third of state’s workforce, something economic development officials didn’t know until Goss crunched the numbers. (HT: NDE)