There are signs that in U.S. workforce the army of freelancers active today is growing. According to the Freelancers Union, there are currently about 54 million people doing freelance work to make money in the United States. Most of those are not professional who have been forced to become part of the gig economy; rather, they chose to do it.
A study by Intuit suggests that freelancers – also known as contingent workers – could swell to about 40% of the workforce by 2020.
Will that come to pass? Time will tell. But in the meantime, those who have elected to earn their livelihood in the "Gig Economy" are constantly scanning for new opportunities out there on job boards, through personal connections and through marketing themselves among their professional contacts.
Recently, FlexJobs – an online job board that specializes in freelance, remote and flexible time work – released some snippets of information on which companies have been on the lookout for contingent workers, what types of positions they’ve sought and which industries those positions are needed. We plugged FlexJobs’ data into a small gallery. Check it out below:
Facebook is one of the companies FlexJobs cited as having been on the hunt for freelancers. The company has specifically sought those in the project management category. Also in that category, media agency BBC Worldwide and Seattle-based advertising agency, Razorfish, have been looking for talent. FlexJobs says the companies listed positions like Product manager, Sourcing Manager, and Program Manager on its platform.
In the healthcare and medical sector, FlexJobs notes recent freelancer recruitment activity from Carolinas Healthcare System, Florida-based Altegra Health, Calian—a Canadian tech consultant active in the healthcare field. These companies were specifically looking for talent to fill positions like clinical psychologist, medical coder, and clinical nurse.
In the IT and computer realm, companies like VMware, IBM, CompuCom have been on the lookout for contingent workers, says FlexJobs, and have posted ads on FlexJobs to recruit people to fill positions like Web developer, senior network engineer, and systems administrator.
That employers are choosing to hire talent on an as needed basis is becoming more common in the U.S. workforce. According to a survey by staffing firm, Addison Group, 88 percent of hiring managers are more comfortable hiring contractors for senior level positions than they were five years ago. Meanwhile, 58 percent of U.S. employees—and 65% of those ages 18 to 25—said they would be comfortable working under a temporary contractor.
So not only are more people embracing the freelance lifestyle, they are finding homes at companies that are welcoming them more warmly than ever.
