[Grammar] there were three million self-employed

[Flogger]

Hello,

The word "self-employed" is an adjective but it seems to have a role of plural noun in the following sentence! How? I know that sometimes adjective can be changed into a noun "like poor into the poor, meaning poor people" but this hypothesis does not sound plausible in this case. What do you think?

The sentence was extracted from Irishnews.

In the past year, there were three million self-employed who received no Covid support from the Government, because they did not qualify for the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme, or operated their businesses through limited companies.

Thank you in advance,

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, you've understood it correctly. It means 'self-employed people'.

It's very common to use self-employed in this way. We commonly use unemployed in the same way too.