Take this staff position and shove it.
That’s the attitude of millions of American workers — especially younger ones.
“We will increasingly see people work on the terms that they prefer, and for many that means freelancing,” predicted Adam Ozimek, chief economist for Upwork, a San Francisco-based service linking freelancers with companies.
Increasing numbers of American workers expect to be career freelancers, driven by a strong economy, low unemployment rates and the younger generation’s embrace of technology.
Those are some of the conclusions of “Freelancing in America 2019,” a report from Upwork and the Freelancers Union.
An improving labor market means that, for the first time since the annual report began in 2014, “there are as many freelancers who view freelancing as long term as there are people who view it as temporary, at 50% each,” it concluded.
Freelancing is now almost a $1 trillion part of the economy, “approaching 5% of the US GDP,” the report said.
In the last five years, it added, those who are actually freelancing full-time went from 17% to 28% of the workforce. The younger one is, the more likely one is to freelance, it found.
How does a freelance career start?
“Meet with someone from a staffing firm specializing in your area of expertise to find out what skills are in greatest demand in your area,” said Richard Deosingh, district president at the Robert Half staffing firm in New York.
But freelancing also has its downside. “Many employers don’t clearly define roles and will start adding on work beyond what has been contracted,” said Brie Reynolds, career development manager at FlexJobs.
And 78% of freelancers don’t even have a written contract, according to a Freelancers Union article by Laura Murphy.