Brace Yourselves: By 2020, 40% of Workers in the U.S. Will Be Freelancers

May 30, 2014

In less than a decade, the entire notion of company culture may change. In a study by Inuit in 2010, more than 40% of the workforce in the U.S. will be temporary or freelance- around 60 million people. The U.S. government conducted this test in 2006 and found that 30% were temporary workers, falling over 40 million people. Clearly, the trend of working from home or on a contract basis is growing.

What does this mean for us? A number of things which include:

This is a growing industry. As temporary opportunities in all sectors grow in number, the workplace ecosystem will change, resulting in the need for more home offices, wi-fi work spaces, and corporate campuses. If you can expect the demand for the needs of freelancers to pop up, perhaps the entrepreneur in us all can see the opportunity to turn this growing trend into a business and open up more mobile offices and work cafes.
This is a new industry. The system we are used to working in is the part/full-time gig, meaning what we have now doesn’t widely support temporary or freelance work. Being a contract worker can be complicated and many shady employers may try to take advantage of the situation. You should definitely know how to protect yourself if you find yourself working by contract.
You are going to have to get used to it. One of the key differences to working as a temp/freelance/contract employee is that you don’t get benefits or a steady paycheck. If you are lucky to land a “real job,” that’s awesome, but for the rest of us, we’ll have to figure out where our health insurance comes from, how to file our taxes differently, and how to keep finding steady employment living contract to contract.

Times are changing, but at least we know how it will be before hand. Land a steady job, prepare to jump into the freelance life, or as always, be your own boss, start your own company, and become an entrepreneur. Good luck!

Featured image via Flickr, robfahey

Source: Quartz

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