Rakesh Jain, Negosentro | Traditionally, it has been a belief that your skill set does not start building until you get a job. But that no longer holds absolute truth. A growing freelance market in the US shows that a change is brewing in the young professionals. And the stats speak for themselves. A recently conducted survey of the US freelance economy at large scale shows the increase in the no. of freelancing workers. Currently that no. stands at 57.3 million, up from 55 million last year.
Up ticking Freelance
Today more than a third (36%) of the workforce in the US is freelancers. Their collective earnings for the past year totaled $1 trillion states a survey, “Freelancing in America: 2016” conducted by the Freelancers Union which represents 300,000 members and the giant freelancing platform Upwork. It is predicted that by 2020, half of the workforce in the US will be freelancers (one thing to be kept in mind over here is that this does not mean they are fully freelancers, but one of every two workers freelances in to an extent. This has shifted towards independent professionals who are making the most out of mobile technology to create their perfect work environment. There is no law that states that one can’t be an Uber Driver in the morning, a web designer in noon and a restaurant manager at night. The traditional approach to profession wherein one picks a job and then sticks with it for the entirety of his career is passé. In the new economic order the more diverse your skill-set is the more opportunities you attract towards yourself.
What Changed in the Freelancing Market?
The Freelancing in America report also detailed some very notable findings
- 54 % of the workforce isn’t sure that their work will exist in future consequently re-skilling is crucial. Freelancers therefore are better equipped for the future. Almost 55 percent of the freelancing community took skill related courses as compared to only 30 percent non freelancers in the past 6 months
- Very soon by current estimates, US workforce will have majority of freelancers by the year 2027.
- Freelancing is no more a forced option, 63% of the freelancers affirmed that they freelance because they want to. This is 10% increase since 2014.
- The conventional definition of stability is obsolete for them. For freelancers a diverse clientele is more secure than a singular employer. 63% of the freelancers agree with this and they have an average of 4.5 clients every month.
- But there a peculiar issue characteristic to freelancers alone which is income predictability. Freelancers have to resort to their savings (63%)which is much more than the non freelancers(20%)
What has led to the sudden growth in the size of the freelancing market? There are numerous e-commerce startups that offer freelancing services from freelancers all over the world via their multivendor marketplace, like Upwork, Fiverr, Crew.co. The study deduced the following factors for this rise
- The market feelings have changed is now felt by over 66% of the freelancers as compared to only 42% 3 years ago.
- Freelancing is no more stigmatized and has escaped its negative image. More 69% freelancers feel that this is true.
- The expansion of internet structure and connectivity has led to freelancers finding more work online. As more and more businesses migrate to digital platform this figure is only set to rise. 71% freelancers confirm this which is an increase of 5% from the previous year.
- The most common driving forces behind people opting for freelancing is 1.) To earn extra money 2) To be their own boss 3.) To choose their work 4.) To choose when they work.
Freelancers’ Economic Impact
- $1.4 trillion is the amount contributed to the US economy by freelancers in 2016. An indicator of the well doing American middleclass a majority of which is because of the freelancers.
- There aren’t many differences between concerns of freelancers and non freelancers which are ability to save, debt and access to affordable healthcare. But income predictability is a challenge that is characteristic to freelancers alone.
Conclusion
Thus we see the impact that the freelancers have had on the economy. A lot of this can be attributed to the explosion of internet based economy. There sprang up a no. of services offering freelancer services to recruiters. Thanks to internet and the 24/7 connectivity freelancers could offer services globally to virtually anyone interested. Multivendor marketplaces website that brought the freelancers and consumers at a common places eliminating virtually every logistical hurdle are to be specifically credited as well.
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Author bio:
Rakesh Jain is a CEO and Co-founder of Mobicommerce, an eCommerce website & mobile app development company having a team of best app developers who deliver best eCommerce solutions mainly on Magento and PrestaShop platform. He regularly contributes his knowledge on the leading blogging sites. You can connect with him on Twitter.
