A historic number of workers have become their own bosses amid the COVID-19 pandemic, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (pdf). As of October, there were about 9.44 million unincorporated self-employed individuals in the United States, as per the Bureau’s data. In that same month last year, there were about 8.78 million unincorporated self-employed individuals in the United States. The latest figures amount to a rise of 500,000 since the start of the pandemic and an increase of 6 percent in the self-employed, while the overall U.S. employment total remains nearly 3 percent lower than before the pandemic. Furthermore, in October of this year, there were 432,101 business formation applications filed in the United States, according to data from the Census Bureau. In that same month last year, there were 414,195 applications filed to register a new business. A number of reasons could be behind the wave in self-employment rates, including growing fears among employees returning to …