From Zenith Talent, Sunil Bagai discusses the booming gig economy. Sunil writes:
The independent talent boom
As recovery efforts began in the aftermath of the Great Recession, employers worried that the skilled independents they’d relied on to restore their businesses would dwindle — the assumption being that this talent would return to full-time work. That fear seems unfounded today. As MBO Partners CEO Gene Zaino explains: “The primary reason independent workers give for their choice is that working for themselves means they are not under the control of a single employer or boss.”
- According to MBO Partners’ research, 43 percent of full-time independents say they’re more secure working independently, up from 33 percent in 2011.
- The average independent has four or more clients to diversify financial risk.
- The average full-time independent typically earns more than the average traditional employee.
- Close to 80 percent of independent workers admit being happier.
- One in seven traditional employees, age 21 and over, are considering a switch to independent work.
- Independents are important and positive contributors to the economy — their revenues reached $1.15 trillion in 2015, about seven percent of U.S. GDP. “If the independent workforce were a country,” Zaino posits, “its ‘Gross Independent Product’ would be almost equal to the GDP of Mexico.”
A new relationship between independent contractors and staffing curators
As Taryn Barnes observes in Workforce Magazine, “Led by the likes of Airbnb Inc., Instacart and Uber Technologies Inc., the sharing economy — also known as the gig, on-demand and 1099 economy — is providing independent contractors the ability to scale their businesses in a simpler and more feasible manner.”
Read the full story at Thank the Boomers for the Booming Gig Economy [link no longer active]
