Abstract. The economic crisis caused the ubiquitous growth of a number of self-employed in total employment. In particular groups of countries the self-employment differs both by its scale and composition. Compared to the Central and East European economies, the CIS countries show a much higher share of dependents in the families while the unit weight of employers using hired workers is considerably lower. One of the most characteristic features of self-employment in the transitional economies is very wide participation of women. This conclusion is especially true for CIS countries where women make up the prevailing part of self-employed and their share demonstrates a steady growth. In the Central and East European economies gender indicators are rather close to those in the developed nations. Men face a higher risk of becoming self-employed than women. As for Russia, in terms of volume, composition and structure of self-employment it stays close to the group of Central and East European countries rather than to CIS nations.