We can distinguish between two reasons for undertaking self-employment. The first treats self-employment as the only way of avoiding unemployment. According to this view selfemployment is anticylical and acts as a buffer. The second reason puts emphasis on the entrepreneurial, risk-taking nature of selfemployment, which according to this view is procyclical and similar to wage employment. We examine these views by looking on labor market flows obtained from the Polish LFS. The results point to an anticyclical behavior of self-employed farmers and the entrepreneurial nature of own account workers and entrepreneurs with employees.