From the StarTribune.com, Molly Priesmeyer writes “…part of the reason freelancers have become the newest, growing workforce is because the economy tanked. Unemployment rose during the recent recession, peaking at about 10 percent in 2009. There simply weren’t enough jobs to be had. As job insecurity reached a fevered pitch, people were forced to diversify their income portfolio by adding contract gigs or after-hours work.
The flip side of that freelance coin, though, is that nearly 8 in 10 freelancers report making the same amount of money than they did before they started freelancing. And 42 percent say they make more than before.
The increase in money and freedom could by why freelancers report being so happy with their jobs. In quite the timely study-release fashion, Minneapolis-based Field Nation, a company that connects organizations with independent contractors, released a survey earlier this month revealing that 97 percent of respondents report being satisfied or extremely satisfied with their jobs as independent contractors.
While those numbers may be slightly skewed, based on 846 total respondents, they’re in stark contrast to how the rest of the country rates job satisfaction. Fewer than half of American workers report being satisfied with their jobs.
Read the full story at I quit! Why more than one-third of the U.S. workforce is going freelance
Related articles
- One-Third of Americans Are Freelancers Now (reason.com)
- IRS needs to embrace freelance economy (cnbc.com)
