Culling data from more than 5,000 respondents, the report, Freelancing in America: A National Survey of the New Workforce, estimated that some 53 million people are doing freelance work in the US. In other words, 34% of the nation's human resources-the combined populace of 25 states-are working one way or the other on a freelance basis.
"Freelancing is the new normal-and this survey shows that America's new workforce is big, crucial and here to stay," said Freelancers Union founder, Sara Horowitz.
As one, freelancers are a workforce to be reckoned with, funnelling some $715 billion into the GDP, the report contends. In 2006, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) only counted 42.6 million 'contingent' American workers.
Enticed by freedoms unheard of in the traditional workspace, workers of today are truly fomenting a paradigm shift in labour. Freelancing is, in essence, a line of work fraught with income instability and bereft of traditional workplace benefits, but frankly, workers just don't care.
Those surveyed were profiled into five categories, among them workers who hold a benefits-laden, traditional job yet do freelance work on the side. There are 14.3 million of these moonlighters, 36% or 5.1 million of whom have mulled vacating their primary jobs to devote themselves to freelance work.
Independent contractors, what one would call 'traditional freelancers', are the majority, representing 21.1 million Americans. These are the workers who do not have an employer in the traditional sense; they render work on a project-to-project basis.
A third category, diversified workers, is 9.3 million strong. These freelance workers are the types who have multiple income streams, e.g. 20-hour work weeks at a dental office coupled with freelance writing and ride-sharing gigs.
Another 5.5 million are temporary staffers, those who work for a single employer in a temporary capacity, sans the benefits. This type of work can go on for months on end.
Lastly, there are those entrepreneurs who identify themselves as freelancers. These are the estimated 2.8 million business owners who usually only have up to five employees.
In a way, all freelancers are business owners. "Being a freelancer and independent is about being a micro-entrepreneur. Freelancers are the smallest business you can imagine," Elance-Odesk CEO Fabio Rosati said.
As with all business owners, freelancers enjoy all the liberties expected of self-employment. "People are adjusting their expenses and working in the way that lets them have control. Previously, employers had all the control," Horowitz said.
Market forces seem to be aligning toward freelance workers. Thirty-two percent of the survey respondents claimed an increase in demand for work, compared with 15% who saw a decrease. Furthermore, some 43 % expected their income to go up, while only 11% expected it to diminish. Respondents, in fact, remarked at the ease with which they can find freelance gigs through social media.
Indeed, it could be argued that freelancing gained currency alongside the internet, which has since spawned such innovative employment opportunities as ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft. The proliferation of co-working spaces throughout the country is also indicative of an increasingly symbiotic relationship between technology and freelancing.
Freelancing has its pecuniary draws, of course. A staggering 77% of respondents are one in saying that freelancing allows them to rake in the same money as non-freelancing; 42% claim they make more.
There are psychological remunerations too. Sixty-five percent of respondents feel that freelancing has never been a more respectable career path.
This insight checks with a similar report released recently by yet another staffing platform, Field Nation. Its report purported that 90% of independent contractors see themselves as "deeply committed to the work they do for their clients" and are "three times more engaged in their work" than W2 employees.
Oft-cited as a possible catalyst to the mainstreaming of freelance culture is the Great Recession. At a time when prospects of employment were abysmal, with employers truncating tenures left and right, the success of an applicant has grown to hinge on his flexibility.
A case in point: Adjunct positions are increasingly being offered to prospective professors nowadays. According to the American Association of University Professors, adjuncts now represent 76.4% of US faculties.
Not everything is sunshiny in freelance land. For instance, a US Congress study indicated that most adjunct professors live on salaries below the federal poverty line. Plus, a dearth of stable income has been a lament among 50% of moonlighters and part-time freelancers in the Freelancing Union survey.
Without the logistical and financial backing of full-time employers, freelancers are often thrust into life-threatening situations. The recent beheading of James Foley in Syria, for example, has been a chilling factor to aspiring freelance journalists worldwide.
According to the National Employment Law Project, the manufacturing and warehousing industries, by way of exploitative staffing agencies, has rationalised many full-time, unionised jobs into contingent work-with devastating consequences. NELP found that such agencies often exploit temp workers to receive median hourly earnings that are 22% lower than those of all private-sector workers.
NELP highlighted the case of 45-year-old Walmart temporary worker David Fields, who would carry heavy equipment in frostbiting temperatures during the holiday rush. "As temp workers, we were expendable, so we just kept on working," he recounted.
It will take more than grim stats to deter an entire generation from turning to freelancing though. According to the Freelancing Union report, no other age group is keener on contingent work than under-35s or millennials. Thirty-eight percent of millennials are freelancers, having "spent their entire working lives in this freelance era".
Baby boomers are not to be counted out, comprising a good portion of the fifth category of freelancers in the Freelancing Union report. To not a few boomers, entrepreneurial freelancing seems like a good income stream during retirement.
Freelancers, young and old, are all on their own in planning for the time they are put to pasture. Permanent workers, by comparison, almost always have the benefit of employer matches to their retirement plans.
Forbes contributor and self-confessed freelancer Laura Shin implores peers not to procrastinate when it comes to saving for retirement, especially since job-hunting becomes trickier with age.
"If you only start contributing when you're 50, you'll only have 15 years to save enough money to last you for the remaining 20 to 30 years of life, which simply can't be done in such a short amount of time," she wrote.
Investment management firms are known to offer individual retirement accounts (IRA) to freelancers. Organisations like Freelancers Union have also made it possible for US freelancers to open 401(k) accounts, otherwise only given by employers to permanent workers.
Freelancers also need to anticipate events that could disrupt their income en route to retirement. For this reason, owning several classes of insurance would be most prudent.
Disability insurance, also known as income protection insurance, is particularly important. Lacking full-time employers to sponsor their sick days or worse, weeks when they are incapacitated, freelancers need a safety net more than any other kind of worker. This kind of insurance is designed to replace some of the income a freelancer could lose in case of injury, handicap or sickness. An agreed value policy is especially helpful, as it covers the worker for a fixed amount, notwithstanding fluctuations in his income.
Ideally, a freelancer should take out a policy that specifies one's occupation. Otherwise, the insurer may renege on claims if they suppose freelancers could still derive income from a minimum-wage job in lieu of their main line of work.
And then there is health insurance, easily available through a number of insurers and health maintenance organisations (HMOs). (It is also wise to have a separate policy for dental health.) A freelancer may also open a health savings account, a ready cash infusion for those out-of-pocket health expenses.
On top of getting an assortment of insurance plans, a freelancer should feel compelled to have a store of cash in general. One never knows how long he or she would be in between gigs. Access to savings equal to at least three months of living expenses would be advantageous.
Freelancing is, as the cliché goes, a feast-or-famine set up. Diversified workers should be emulated for having more than one income stream. That is, more fallbacks when the pickings are slim.
Freelancing has its drawbacks, but everybody benefits from a workforce that is not tethered permanently to any one organisation. Businesses ultimately profit, not the least from the serendipity of occupying people who would like to wholeheartedly serve them at that moment in time. Creativity and productivity, after all, thrive when the spirit is free. From a macroeconomic perspective, freelancing better habituates the economy to ever-fickle markets.
Eyes are now on the government to rewire the old ways around the new economy. The freelancing body politic is not only growing; it is in dire need of public infrastructure and social security. Now that the numbers are out, the government should endear itself to a demographic that could be ignored no longer. There are skills to identify, benefits to apportion, and paper-works to streamline in their behalf.
This world is changing, and constant changing of hands would ultimately ensure that it is doing so for the better.
